Retriever Essentials Food Access Initiative at University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Retriever Essentials is a faculty, staff, and student partnership at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) to tackle food insecurity in our university community.

The mission of Retriever Essentials is to develop a comprehensive program of resources, which immediately eliminates the burden of food insecurity for students and connects them to ongoing support networks, in order to enhance students’ academic success.

Retriever Essentials utilizes three pillars to serve UMBC students who are struggling with food security: Food Zones, Save a Swipe, and community partnership. Food Zones are 6 locations across campus where students can pick up a pre-packed bag of free nonperishable groceries. Save a Swipe is UMBC's meal sharing program where students with meal plans can opt to donate 5 or 10 meals throughout the semester, which are gathered into a "pool" that trained Retriever Essentials staff can pull from and distribute to students who have been identified as food insecure, so they can eat on campus for free. And for needs that are outside the scope of campus resources, Retriever Essentials is always working to provide connections to community resources that will help support students on a holistic, sustainable scale.

As a Campus Compact Mid Atlantic university partner, UMBC has been awarded a grant for a 2019-2020 CCMA AmeriCorps VISTA position to strengthen the sustainability of Retriever Essentials now and into the future.