Thirty-four percent of all college students in the US face food insecurity at some point during their college careers according to a 2020 study by the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice out of Temple University. 

While students attend Black Hills State University, many of them are not aware of the different things available to food insecure people of Spearfish. Students should know that there are resources to help if they feel like they don’t know where the next meal will come from. Listed are the different places students can visit if they are feeling they need a helping hand.

First, there is the food bank on campus in the ROTC building at Humbert Hall. Any student at BHSU can just walk in and grab something from the pantry. Students don’t even have to speak to anyone, you can just walk in, go to the left side of the room and grab anything that you would like. 

Next, there is the Spearfish Community Food Pantry on 131 Yankee St. This food bank is run by different church groups and offers a wide variety of choices. The Spearfish Community Pantry looks like a regular grocery store with a huge abundance of food. The only requirement is to show your student ID, proof of residence in the dorms, or your driver’s license showing that you live in Spearfish. 

The volunteers at this food bank talked about the huge generosity of the people of Spearfish, and they talked about their want for students to make use of this food pantry. 

Gloria Baker, a volunteer at the Food Pantry, stated, “Nobody is going to starve if they come here, just drive up and tell us you have never been here before and we will just ask a few questions, and we will help any student, we would love to have students come here.” 

Lastly, there is The Atomic Pizza Cafe on 608 N. Main Street. The Atomic Pizza Cafe has since February, started to offer a no purchase necessary free soup on the last Wednesday of every month. 

Owner Mike Greco explained that he wanted somewhere in Spearfish to serve a community meal “it got me thinking, what would it look like if for just one day out of the month, we had a ‘no questions asked’ free meal.” 

Greco said, the rise of inflation led him to want to help the people of Spearfish, “I’m sure there are people that are struggling, and I didn’t want to make it that you had to prove anything or reveal anything. If someone came in with an expensive suit, we would not ask anything. Just come and get some soup and a soda.” 

Students have many things to worry about during their college careers and food should not be one of them, there are many options on campus and around Spearfish that can help students feed themselves so that they can continue to have successful college careers.