Welcome to Brazos Matters.

I'm Jay Socol.

So we've wanted to talk about food insecurity on this show for a long time, and especially for college students.

So when you envision the typical person who doesn't always have access to or the resources for consistent meals and sufficient nutrition, you might not picture a person being a student.

But for our community of higher learning, Texas A&M and Blinn College students are very much a part of that population.

So there are several food pantry resources in Aggieland and even on campus, like the 12th can and swipe out hunger.

And we're going to talk more about those.

But today's guest represents the newest student focused food pantry.

This one being across University Drive in the Northgate area.

Reverend Bryan Jody is an associate pastor for college ministry at A&M United Methodist Church, which has been in existence for more than 100 years.

And while A&M, UMC has served as a pocket food pantry and has long supported the Brazos Church Pantry, and that pantry is headquartered in downtown.

Bryan.

Bryan Jody, spearheaded the recent effort to expand its capabilities and meet the needs of the hundreds of food insecure students living within mere blocks of the church.

So, Bryan Jody, welcome to Brazos Matters.

Yeah.

Thank you for having me.

Absolutely.

Okay, so you guys were already doing work in this space, but when did you or someone else at the church realize that maybe that wasn't enough?

Yeah.

So we've been, in the food game for a long time.

I sat on a council, CMA, it's campus ministry association.

And on that council, there are a lot of different faiths.

There's a lot of different denominations.

And we come together and we meet with student services, and they kind of let us know how the vibe of, Texas A&M is going with students and how, you know, when, when finals come around or tests come around or if we see an uptick, uptick in caps and stuff like that.

So, they met with us and they did a survey back in 2021, 2022 of, our students, you know, kind of thriving and what that kind of means.

And part of it was part of it was like, do they fit in, first year students, you know, compared to seniors and fourth year students and stuff like that.

Aggie well-being.

So.

Right, right, right.

Yeah.

And so through that, there was some talk about food insecurity and part of that, A&M got a grant and they did this food initiative of this pocket pantry.

So the talks really started in 2024, in the fall of 2024, because we as CMA wanted to do a pocket pantry.

And there's one located at all Faiths, all Faiths Chapel right there.

And pretty much, you know, right there by, Academic Plaza and stuff like that.

And we did that as a group and we kind of looked that looked at that for students, and our students looked at it and said, why can't we do that where we are?

And I was like, well, I think we can.

You know.

So of course I asked.

And I was like, hey, we're not on campus, but we're, you know, right across the street in Northgate.

Could this be a possibility?

And A&M was 100%, let's do this.

And so they actually let us, they ordered a, H-e-b pickup for us, to kind of get us started.

And, and then we kind of presented it to the people of our congregation and they're like, no, like, this should be a thing that we do, right?

Methodists do food well, and that's one of those things.

It's one of our calling cards.

So we said, yeah, let's feed as many students as we can with through this pocket pantry.

And my office is actually in, we call it the annex.

It's an old Lutheran church that A&M United Methodist bought back in the early 2000s.

And so it's an old sanctuary.

We converted it into a coffeehouse, and we write grants for that because that has free food, free coffee, free Wi-Fi, free snacks for students to come study.

And it's open pretty much 24/7.

And that's where our pocket pantry is located.

So after sitting with a pocket pantry for about a year, we just saw more students come in and more conversations started happening.

Food insecurity about how, a lot of, especially a lot of international students are coming over.

And they love being educated here.

They love the the environment.

They love just being here.

But, part of it is, is that the funds don't go far enough, for food.

Yeah.

So, really, last fall, we kind of started this conversation of what is what what would it look like to open up, a space that we hardly ever use, clear it out and make it a walk in choice food pantry for students.

And through a couple of meetings and we kind of looked at, what, like 12th can was doing, what the church pantry is doing and where they're located.

And then we actually drove around, for a week and, and looked at every other food pantry in our town.

And then we met, with Esther, and she, is at the, the I think it's called Sweet Oak Collaborative.

And she looks she is a guru in town, and she looks at all these different things and kind of meets people.

She's really just a people person.

She she's putting people together.

So if you have a need, she can find a need.

She can find it, like where you can meet that need or if you're like, hey, we have an opportunity to open a student food pantry.

Can you come in?

She came in and talked to us for about four hours, and she was like, I think what you're going to do here is, is going to be substantial and you may even outgrow it.

And I was like, well, let's, let's do it.

Let's, let's go ahead and start talking about it.

And we kind of brought it to the congregation.

And it is going to be a core memory for me because we set we set the dollar amount as 10,000 to kind of open it.

And by the end of the day, we had about 35,000 donated that day for this food pantry.

So it seemed like our congregation was like, you know, we're right across the street from Texas A&M.

Why are we not feeding students already?

Yeah.

So when we started looking at this and how we wanted to do it, I say it's a choice pantry because students get to come in, they get a, a grocery bag that is reusable, that has our logo on it, and they can bring it back or we get, you know, they can get a new one each time.

But they can come in and, and pick what they want.

A lot of places that we drove around there would hand boxes to people that had already like pre- cho.. or like pre chosen food.

Yes.

Which is, which is great because you can serve a ton of people that way.

And if you're getting food from, like Houston Food Bank or any of the food banks that are bringing you in, you know, you kind of get what you get and you kind of divvy it up however you want to divvy it up.

And we just have the opportunity to make sure that we want to make sure that whatever is on our, shelves is exactly what students need.

So we're trying to do zero food waste.

You know, we bought lemons and limes the other day, and, and those didn't really fly off the shelves like we thought.

So we had students cut them and use them and freeze the juice.

Right.

So we're going to use that.

We our church cooks, I don't know, like 14 times a week, for it, for different things.

So, so that's a huge part of, of the choice Pantry as well.

We've been open now for a couple of weeks, and we've already, hit, you know, we've already gone over serving 100, 100 students.

And that's just like grassroots, like putting fliers up and things like that.

So we're just trying to get the word out, and, and it's and it's going pretty, amazingly.

So you realize that I had like, 16 questions.

You just answered it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's right.

So so it's, pay attention to pacing here.

No.

I'm kidding.

Yeah.

No, that's that's excellent information.

I'm.

I'm curious about, the numbers that maybe you have heard or percentages, related to, say, Texas A&M students who are food insecure.

And if you believe that where A&M United Methodist is located in Northgate, if, if those percentages sort of translate across University Drive there, like, are you sitting in the middle of those same sort of, food insecure percentages, you think, as the campus represents?

Yeah.

So, so what we have heard, we had a student, Riley Anderson.

He actually went, Bryan, I think it was the city council kind of put on, like, food insecurity within Brazos County.

And, he, he came back with a lot of great information, but he was he was kind of upset because it was just like they had kids, they had families.

They had people that were single, you know, like all these different demographics.

But they didn't have college students.

And, so we did some digging and yeah, we've seen like 1 in 3 students are food insecure.

And, you know, I think sometimes, people are like, oh, they don't have food at all.

And it's like, no, it's not that they don't have food.

It's sometimes they just don't know where their next meal is coming from.

So it's just that insecurity.

So we saw 1 in 3 students and and it's kind of across the Brazos Valley.

So we're looking at A&M Blinn and RELLIS.

Right.

And and all three of those students and or all three of those, those pockets, we have a huge pocket of students that live just on the south side of Bryan, right behind our church.

Yeah.

That walk past us.

We have three bus stops around us.

And now we are, you know, becoming, shadows of what is going up on Northgate with all the high rises and, and we're seeing some student housing being torn down just to create, these, these high rises that are coming in, which is pushing the students that we are kind of serving a little bit farther back.

Yeah.

Bryan.

Right.

So, with that, I, I think that's one of those things that that's why we chose to do it, because we do.

We see a lot of students that are coming in, from from the Bryan area and just around our location.

And they are they're they're searching.

We're doubling numbers each time we open our doors.

We're doubling numbers each time we open our doors.

And that has the first day, you know, we did we serve like ten, ten students.

And then the next day we opened, we served about 25, and we're like, oh, how'd you learn about us?

And it's like, oh, well, our roommates came, from, our roommates came last Wednesday, and we're just like, oh my gosh.

Okay.

So where it is kind of getting out that way.

We are also finding so we're, we're trying to track metrics as well because right now we're not grant writing.

Our congregation is like, this is something that we want to do.

But, you know, if it grows out of hand, we want to make sure that we have, stats on students that we're serving, and a lot of students are off, off site, living in, again, that south side of Bryan, right behind us.

But a lot of it is, you know, they have roommates, that are six, seven, eight deep.

And it's a lot of students that are coming over that are, trying to find cheaper housing, to live in.

And, and they don't have cars, so they're using public transportation as best as they can in our area.

So that's where, you know, the bus stop has the food pantry site next to it.

We are working with the Lutherans right across the street underneath the Rev.

They're putting in benches, outside of, on our property outside of our, different spaces to kind of just like, hey, just take a seat here.

But it also helps us for advertising and stuff like that.

Just to kind of get the word out about the food pantry.

So, yeah, the economics over there really are changing because some of them more affordable housing use by students who are international students was right there in that area.

And like you said, it's getting it's getting pushed outward, to make room for the high rises, which, you know, I think are at a different kind of price point.

Right.

So but but you're still able to reach the people you feel like need to know about you, through at least some passive, advertising or notifications.

It funnel them into your pantry.

Right, right.

And, and that's the thing is, we're learning as we go.

So, none of us have these this experience of, oh, we've ran food pantries before and stuff like that.

Really.

I made 15,000 phone calls about, like, how do we do this?

Well, without, doing harm to anybody around us, right?

Like, we don't we don't want to come in and seem like saviors.

We want to come in and walk along with students to say, yes, we can fill a bag of food up for you.

But also, what else can we do for you?

Do you have bedding?

Do you have, suits and things like that?

So when, time for, when they, when they're looking for jobs, do do they have nicer clothes or suits that they need, to, to do those interviews?

And do you need haircuts?

Do you need all these different things?

Because we want to make sure that we're serving not only the food insecurity, but like, the full student, what are those things that you would eventually take on or those are resources that you would direct people to if they needed them.

So right now, there are a couple of clothes pantries, that that campus has, we think that the food pantry is a, our first step into, serving students, in any way possible.

So we've already had we people have tried to donate furniture.

We don't have the storage for that.

So we just say, well, if you can hold on to it, that would be fantastic, right?

So that we don't become a storage facility, but, we have, people that have donated furniture, and then it has come in and gone out like the first day, right?

Like they've sent me a picture.

Hey, I have this couch, and it's just like, okay, let's ask around.

So it is, it's it's a it's a first way into seeing how we can be a part of our community the best that we can.

And, and and with that, it is it, it it's it's really scary, you know, to be honest, because when you're looking at a third of 80,000 students, that that number is daunting.

But I think the congregation of and I mean, our Methodist church said there's a gap here, and we got to start standing in it or or, you know, because because of our location and because of who we are and, and who we serve, let's reset things.

For just a moment.

If you're just tuning in, I'm j. So cool.

Our guest today is Reverend Bryan Jody from A&M United Methodist Church.

He is the associate pastor for college ministry.

We're talking about their recent efforts to help combat food insecurity among college students.

So we mentioned briefly, the Aggie well-being survey, and I sort of dipped into that a little bit in preparation for this conversation.

And I did not see a specific filter, and I could have overlooked it.

That addressed food insecurity specifically.

But what I did find were a couple that were adjacent to it, and I think there's probably some cause and effect here.

And one was the percentage of students who are suffering financially, and then another was percentage of students who had severe or overwhelming financial stress, which I think contributes to what you guys are trying to tackle.

And so from this Aggie Well-Being survey, the, related to, percentage of students who were suffering financially over the past three academic years, that number has fluctuated from 30 to 37%, far more first generation Aggies fall into this category, more women than men, and a fairly even distribution across freshman, sophomore, as junior seniors and grad students in terms of ethnicity, the breakdown includes 39% black or multiracial with black, 37% international students, 36% Hispanic or Latino of any race, 32% white.

And then the percentages, sort of go down from there.

Does this sort of align with what you're seeing and who you're seeing?

Yes.

So we we are actually seeing a lot of grad students that are international students.

And so with that, what we have learned from some of our students that have kind of shared their journeys, to, to get here is they get accepted into, Texas A&M and they're so excited.

But part of it is, just like a financial check, right?

Yeah.

And, and I think it's a good thing, you know, Texas A&M wants to make sure that if students are coming over here that they're financially able to to have a place to live, you know, and, and have, enough food to, to eat with and all those things.

But we're seeing a lot of students that just want to be here.

So their families were will pull their money, to kind of give that snapshot of like, hey, we have enough to send our student over.

And then the student gets over here and that money kind of gets dispersed back amongst the intergenerational family.

Yeah.

And then that student gets here and it's like, okay, like, now it's time to grind, right?

I got to go to school.

I got to get a job.

I got to do these things.

You know, the connection is so well though.

But that's why we're seeing students that are more than, like, four deep and and a house.

Right.

Because, it makes that a little bit cheaper to make other things a little bit cheaper and, and, and kind of that way, so with that, our international students are the biggest, pool that has come through our, our pantry so far.

Yeah.

And, and I mean, that's, that's why we started it because our pocket pantry had the same thing and, and it and it was great because there are opportunities to say like, hey, what what do you, what would be a home cooked meal for you?

And one of our biggest resources is Spice World Market south of College Station.

Yeah.

They, they have that spot and then they have, like, the mini mart, and I don't know how many minis I've heard, like the mini mini mini mart.

That's correct, because I live nearby.

Yeah.

So so they they own both those establishments and, and one of the first conversations that I had, I walked in and I said, what would you cook for?

You know, what would be in your pantry?

And that's where we got, our selection of spices.

And we passed that out to our congregation.

Our congregation are like, I don't I don't know what this is.

And I pointed them to, to Spice World Market south of town and, you know, and they're, they're workers are like, why are you bringing us these tags and why are you here?

And you're taking all of our spices, you know, and and so, like, we had to call and be like, hey, I'm sorry I said one spot.

I didn't know that the whole congregation was going to come to you, but, but, you know, the, the owners there have been phenomenal.

We get our halal meat from there.

We get our spices from there.

They they have talked about ordering in bulk for us.

They can repackage things because they have, you know, through the health department, they, they have the they can do that.

So, you know, they have talked about getting the 50 pound bags of rice and packaging it into, into 1 pound bags for us.

So, I mean, they've already given us, we have halal meat.

That's chicken.

And they do the whole chicken and they package it that way.

But we asked if they can just do half, and they repackaged it for us.

And, and they are just a phenomenal resource that this community has.

And they're phenomenal resources for students too, because they are such givers in that community as well.

You know, Jasmine that works there.

She, worked at the mini mart, for 28 years, and she was just like the the students that would come in that she would cook, like, homemade meals for, just this it seemed to be ticking up every year.

As as A&M has grown and the community has brought in more international students.

So she is just like, this is phenomenal.

What can I do for you?

And we're finding that all throughout our community.

H-e-b, is is we're we're talking to H-e-b about getting, produce.

And Brookshire Brothers, blue, bright blue.

Baker always gives out, like, their bread after, you know, after the days.

And instead of trying to throw it away, they, they hand it out for free.

So we're talking to our community as well and saying, hey, how can how can you help us serve, those that are around us as well.

So aside from lemons and limes maybe not being, on target, what are some early lessons that you have learned through this?

Yeah, that there's different, lentils?

I am not a big lentil guy.

But there's a very big difference between red lentils and green lentils and, red lentils seem to be very, very popular.

A lot of our international students are vegetarian.

And, so, you know, dipping our toe and, finding tofu and paneer, finding different, you know, sources of protein and things like that.

That isn't meat.

Has also been very, very interesting.

And then just the packaging, a lot of our students.

So when, when a student walks in, they get paired with, a congregation member that's kind of helping guide and and what that congregation does, going congregation member.

They walk through the pantry and they show students exactly what we have.

Right.

So it's just like, okay, we have, you know, snacks here.

We have breakfast stuff here.

Here's where all of our grains are in here.

And, and just kind of like talking through and then the like.

So fill up your bag and we'll, you know, we'll meet you outside.

So they're not walking with them the whole time, but they kind of give them a view of what it is.

And we've had a lot of students that look at like the packaging and they're just like, so tell me again what this is, and it is something of just like, just like a basic brand, you know, brand name cereal.

And it's just like, so what's is there a ton of sugar in this?

And I'm like, I'm sorry.

Yes.

Let me, you know, point you in a different direction if you don't want sugar.

But it is it's one of those things of, we and and, you know, some of our students come in and they're like, yeah, we want river fish.

And I'm like, okay, some big fisherman.

What what kind?

You know?

And they're like, just whatever swims in a river, we don't want ocean.

And I'm like, all right, let's do this.

So, you know, again, Spice World Market helped us out, and they have a great, fish selection.

And, again, they packaged it in about 1 pound meals or 1 pound packages, to help us out because we're trying to be open and we're open right now on Sundays from 1 to 3 and Wednesdays from 530 to 730.

We didn't want to open, like, every day because we just didn't think that was the best resource of our time.

But, what we're trying to do is we're letting students come any time they want.

So if if they want to come twice a week, they can come twice a week.

If they want to come once a week, they can.

But we're also tracking, you know, students that come in because we want to make sure we want to make sure that if a student comes in every Monday for three months or every Wednesday for three months, and then misses a month, we want to make sure that we know who we're looking for and say, like, hey, what what happened here?

You know, did you move back home or, or were you sick?

Do we need to bring you food?

When we when we didn't have any halal meat, the first couple times, you know, student says, oh, I only eat halal.

And I'm like, okay, fantastic.

You know, hey, shoot me your address and I'll go pick up some food and drop it off.

And and we have that capability because of what we're doing and who we are to say.

Yeah, or pantry areas are here.

But if you're in need, let us let us do whatever we can to serve you anything.

So as our time starts winding down, I want to make sure we do mention some of the other resources that exist.

And they're all listed on the Texas A&M website.

If you search food resources at TAMU.edu you will find information about the 12th can.

That's a student run food pantry.

They serve students and faculty and staff in need of assistance.

They've been around since 2013.

You'll you'll see an entire list of pocket pantries in that program.

There's a program called Swipe Out Hunger, which allows students to receive meal swipes when they're struggling to afford food.

And of course, other community resources include the Brazos Valley Food Bank and the Brazos Church Pantry.

Bryan, what else do we need to know in terms of, help?

People can can learn more?

They can donate, they can volunteer and just be part of your new pantry.

Yeah.

Everything is on our website.

It's a-mumc.org.

If you type in A&M or just am UMC, you, you'll be directed to a church in Delaware.

I think that it's Arnold Miller.

I'll give them a shout out because I go to their website all the time looking for my own.

So, on that, on that website, you will find all that information.

We have sign ups on there and things like that.

Obviously reach out to the church, for any donations or if you'd like to volunteer, we would love to walk anybody through our food pantry to kind of show them what we're doing and how we're doing it, and, and to say that we are learning as we're going and, and if anybody has, insight or if anybody wants to come through and say, like, hey, I actually know a lot about food pantries, I would love to talk to them.

I love to, bend the ear a little bit and say, this is what we're seeing.

Where do you where do you kind of fall in line with this?

I mean, because one, one resource that I did have, Kyle Tremblay is another pastor in our conference.

And he actually works, on the campus of Lamar University, in Beaumont at their Wesley Foundation.

And they have a student food pantry.

So, I try to, I try to reach out to him all the time with a thousand different questions of like, hey, what about this?

What about this?

And and he, is gracious enough, to just send me.

He just sent me like, a full, like, doc download.

And it was just, like, awesome.

And this is where we start.

So any, any way that people can, can help or or serve alongside us, that's exactly what we want.

So, we just want to be here for the community.

That's that's around us.

Perfect.

We'll try to put some information about, this student focused food pantry at A&M United Methodist Church in our show notes.

And, Reverend Bryan Jody, thanks so much for joining us.

Hey, thank you for having me on Brazos Matters is a production of Aggielands Public Radio 90.9 Kamu FM, a member of Texas A&M University's Division of Community Engagement.

Our show is engineered and edited by Matt Dittman.

All Brazos Matters episodes are available on YouTube and on podcast platforms like Spotify, Apple, iHeart, and Amazon, also on the NPR app and on the Kamu website.

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Thanks for being with us.

I'm Jay Socol.

Have a great day.