BNC Programs Overview

The Basic Needs Center provides education, prevention & emergency relief programs in the core areas of basic needs: food security, housing security & financial stability. All enrolled students including undergraduate, graduate, international, and undocumented students are eligible for Basic Needs Center programs and services.

The BNC’s food security programs are focused on:

1) providing  emergency relief support through short-term interventions such as the Food Pantry and emergency food awards

2)  addressing the long-term food security needs of the community through application support and case management for CalFresh benefits

3) prevention efforts including nutrition education, counseling  & skill building

  • Food Pantry: The food pantry is an emergency relief program that is designed to meet the short-term food security needs of the UC Berkeley community. 

  • CalFresh: The BNC CalFresh program provides application support and case management for students who are seeking CalFresh benefits, which is a long-term government funded food security resource.

  • Emergency Food Awards: Food awards are a one-time financial award for students with short-term food needs that exceed what the campus food pantry can provide. 

  • Skill building, Wellness & Health Programming:  We partner with UHS dietitians and Nutrition Outreach Workers who provide prevention programming which includes drop-in nutrition counseling and food demonstrations. We also partner with the College of Natural Resources’ Nutritional Sciences & Toxicology department who provide a “Personal Food Security & Wellness” course, NST20. 

The BNC's housing security programs are focused on

1) providing safety net emergency relief support through short-term interventions such as emergency housing and emergency rental assistance

2) direct case management support for those students with emergency housing needs. 

Our programs are limited to unplanned housing emergencies for individual students and are not provided for planned or systemic housing gaps such as limited on-campus housing contracts or programmatic gap housing. 

  • Emergency Housing: The Emergency Housing program provides short-term emergency housing to students who are homeless or at imminent risk of losing their housing. Emergency housing is for students who are in situations that include:

    • safety concerns

    • unforeseen and unplanned housing disruptions including displacement and imminent eviction

    • other crisis situations

    • living in public or places not intended for habitation (vehicle, park, etc)

  • Case Management: Case management services are provided to students who are served in the emergency housing program to address immediate needs and identify long-term housing

  • Emergency Rental Assistance: Rental assistance  awards are a one-time award for up to one month of rent for students at risk of eviction or displacement, or who are unable to make rent due to emergency circumstances

  • Housing Security Deposit Award:  One-time award to fully or partially cover a housing security deposit to secure off-campus or on-campus housing for low-income students.

The BNC’s financial stability programs are focused on:

 1) providing safety net emergency relief support through short-term financial interventions for students’ core basic needs

2) direct case management support for those students with emergency financial needs, students with disproportionate basic needs challenges and/or students with significant financial need

3) prevention efforts including financial  education, counseling  & skill building

Programs Include:

  • Emergency Financial Assistance: Through the Basic Needs Emergency Fund, the  Basic Needs Center offers emergency financial assistance in the areas of rent, food, housing security deposit and other emergency and safety needs  to enrolled students who have exhausted their financial resources.  

  • Case Management: Case management services are provided to students who are experiencing financial emergencies 

  • Financial Wellness Programming: We partner with FASO financial aid counselors to provide prevention programming which includes drop-in financial aid counseling and support.