The Pack Essentials Hub sign in the North Hall Activity Room. Feed the Pack Food Pantry is located in the Pack Essentials Hub.

About Pack Essentials

Get to know more about where Pack Essentials started and how we support the Wolfpack community

History

Pack Essentials programming began in 2012 with the opening of the Feed the Pack Pantry. A committee of students, faculty, and staff collaborated to develop a food pantry model for NC State, Feed the Pack initially served the campus community by providing pantry staples through volunteer-run services. Over the last decade, the pantry has grown significantly, offering staples, fresh produce, personal care items, and more as demand for resources has increased across NC State’s student body.

In 2017, the first NC State Food and Housing Insecurity Study validated Feed the Pack’s work and highlighted a need for additional services. The study, led by Dr. Mary Haskett and the Food and Housing Insecurity Steering Committee, found that 14.5% of NC State students had experienced food insecurity in the last 30 days and that 9.6% has experienced at least one type of homelessness in the last 12 months (Haskett et al. 2017). Their work demonstrated the importance of a campus-wide, coordinated effort to address this important issue.

The committee, alongside DASA leadership, worked to establish Pack Essentials in 2017. Since then, Pack Essentials has functioned as a one-stop resource for on-campus and community support available for students. Pack Essentials serves as the first point of contact to discuss each student’s situation, review available resources, and help students access resources on and off campus so they can be successful at NC State. To meet increasing demand, Pack Essentials’ programs have expanded to include: the Student Emergency Fund, Pack Meal Scholarships and Pack Meal Share.

In recent years, Pack Essentials’ work continues to evolve and grow. Two new interactions of the NC State Food and Housing Insecurity Study were published by Dr. Haskett and the steering committee, demonstrating a stark increase in rates of both food and housing insecurity amongst NC State students. The Pack Essentials Hub was created in 2023, merging the Feed the Pack Pantry with Pack Essentials into a physical location on campus where students can access resources and programming. Most recently, Pack Essentials joined a new department on campus, Resiliency and Community Support under the Office of Student Life and Advocacy.