According to the Division of Student Affairs’ Annual Impact Report, the UT Outpost distributed 43 tons of food to students last academic year, a tripling since 2022.
The UT Outpost, the university’s food bank, collected about 8,000 pounds of food in 2018, said Tina Shively, communications and marketing manager for the Office of the Dean of Students.
In its last academic year, the Outpost raised £86,000. The increase was due to the Outpost’s increased visibility and greater community involvement, said Valeria Martin, assistant director of basic needs and Terry Scholar.
“It’s really important to continue to raise awareness of UT Outpost,” Martin said. “Sometimes I hear from people who say, ‘I wish I had known about all of you sooner,’ and that’s something I’d like to remove from our vocabulary.”
Martin said most of the donations come from fundraisers typically run by student organizations. However, Martin said most fundraisers don’t start until later in the semester. She said this can cause conflict because more students typically need food at the beginning of the semester.
“The beginning of a semester is always the busiest time for us … when students are just coming back and maybe haven’t found a job on campus yet, haven’t gotten their first paycheck yet, or have had to spend a lot more money setting up an apartment,” Martin said.
Martin said the Outpost team has to get creative to find resources this time of year, so they typically reach out to staff and faculty. This semester, she said, the Outpost hosted one of its first mobile food distributions with the Central Texas Food Bank on Tuesday during student move-in.
The partnership between Outpost and the food bank began in fall 2022, Stephanie Keogh, the Central Texas Food Bank’s personal relations and communications partner, said in an email. The partnership allows Outpost to place weekly orders and have an extra day to restock supplies, Martin said.
“Together, we served more than 5,000 students between October 2023 and June 2024,” Keogh said. “We look forward to continuing our partnership and serving students on campus.”
Martin said she hopes to expand the partnership this year by hosting more mobile food distribution events during times when the Outpost is temporarily closed. She said the partnership is a result of increased use of the Outpost by students following the pandemic.
Martin said the Outpost distributed about 28,000 pounds of food during the 2021-2022 school year. She attributed the low distribution to pandemic-related accessibility issues, such as scheduling appointments to pick up food.
“We are so grateful to the people who continue to support us because we can’t do this alone,” Martin said. “With the support of others, we are able to support more and more students each year.”
