Imagine studying for a final exam when you haven’t eaten in 16 hours and you’re not sure where your next meal is coming from. Chronically hungry students suffer not only physically, but academically. And food insecurity among college students is a disturbingly common issue.
Research bears this out. “No Food for Thought,” a study of 8,705 university students published in 2018 in the “Journal of Health Psychology,” found that food insecurity was directly associated with lower GPAs, as well as poorer mental health. And a 2023-2024 survey of 74,350 students by The Hope Center for Student Basic Needs found that a whopping 41% experienced food insecurity.
Two key CSUF resources have been collaborating to address this serious issue. Since 2022, the Arboretum and Botanical Garden at Cal State Fullerton has been donating fruit to the university’s Associated Students Inc. Food Pantry. The result: Students who would otherwise be hungry are receiving nourishment that helps them pursue their educational goals.
“We donate fruit from all of our cultivated collections, depending on the season and fruit availability,” said Anna Baier, a CSUF Arboretum horticulturalist. The fruit includes Valencia oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, tangelos, avocados, peaches, nectarines, pears and apples. The fall harvest, Baier said, includes rare fruit, such as white sapote, pomegranates and persimmons.
ASI Food Pantry staffers appreciate the donations. “It’s really great that we and the Arboretum are partnering together to provide nutritious options for our students,” said Cristina Truong, director of the Pantry. “Whenever we distribute fruit from the Arboretum, we post a ‘Farm to Titan’ sign and fill a container with the fruit.”
Open to any CSUF student, the Food Pantry offers a variety of nonperishable foods and fresh produce. It currently distributes 9,000 pounds of food, donated from a variety of sources, per week and handles 25,000 appointments a year. Students can visit up to once a week.
The university’s 26-acre Arboretum includes naturally curated and scientifically relevant collections of plants and trees from throughout the world. Since 2017, the locale has been designated by ArbNet, an international network supporting arboreta and tree-focused professionals, with its Level IV accreditation, the highest designation that recognizes leaders of tree and plant conservation and education. Baier noted that California is home to only four Level IV arboreta and that there are only 45 in the world.
“The Arboretum donates the surplus fruit that they can no longer sell,” Truong said. “Every single week, we’ll drive over there and pick it up. We get a really good mix of fruit. Fresh produce is always our number one in-demand item. Students love the produce since it can get a little pricey if you’re buying it from the store. Other popular items include pastas, breads and ready-to-eat meals. Canned items, milk, eggs and frozen meats are also popular.”
“We weigh the fruit that we pick every week, and we know how much is donated and how much is sold,” Baier said. “My Fruit Team lead this semester is a math major. He calculated that from 2022 to now, 29.45% of the fruit picked here has been donated to the ASI Food Pantry. That amounts to 10,410.5 pounds of fruit.”
The winning collaboration began four years ago, when the Food Pantry offered to donate a critical resource to the Arboretum: compost. “In 2022, they reached out to us about putting all their excess food waste into our compost pile,” Baier said. “We use their compost throughout the entire Arboretum.”
“We take any food that is no longer edible to their site,” Truong said. “It’s really neat because they use soil enriched by our compost to help grow their crops. We drive over to the Arboretum and compost all of that at their site. We also pick up their donated fruit.”
Cal State Fullerton students are grateful for the assistance provided by the Food Pantry. “We received some written student testimonials during our end-of-year survey last May,” Truong said. “For example, one student wrote, ‘I’m a single parent, and the Pantry has aided in supporting my academic journey, as I have been able to focus on school and not worry about not having enough food for my family.’”
Baier emphasized a key component in the Arboretum-Pantry arrangement: interns and volunteers. “Our E3 (Engaging Environmental Experiences) interns and outside community volunteers are the powerhouse for getting all of this fruit harvested,” she said. “They also help care for the trees. We couldn’t get all this fruit to the Food Pantry, and to the community, without them.”
“We really value our partnership with the Arboretum,” Truong said. “We need their donations in order for us to help feed our students.”