Volunteers brought the San Antonio Food Bank to UTSA last Saturday for a mobile food distribution event. A fixture of local philanthropist Harvey E. Najim’s $1.25M donation to the San Antonio Food Bank, the mobile distribution is the first of many as UTSA and the Food Bank collaborate to fight food insecurity at UTSA and in San Antonio.
The distribution comes a month after Najim’s donation. Alongside $125,000 going to the San Antonio Food Bank annually through 2034, Najim will fund eight distribution events at UTSA each year.
“If [students] have to pay for tuition, books, fees, cars and gas plus food. Guess what? They get rid of the food,” Najim said. “If they don’t have food to eat, they can’t concentrate on their studies. We need to make sure they have a breakfast in the morning.”
Volunteers from the Roadrunner Pantry and the San Antonio Food Bank distributed packs of potatoes, bread, eggs, gatorade and juice as well as boxes of dry goods — including rice, cereal, spaghetti noodles and dry beans. Patrons were able to attend on foot or by vehicle; goods would then be loaded by volunteers.
Sebastian Legorreta, a student assistant at the Roadrunner Pantry, expressed gratitude for Najim’s donation. He says the pantry is excited to take advantage of the resources the donation presents and to organize more distribution events.
“Because of that donation, we’re able to do so much more with the food bank. We get to order more. It’s helping us make the pantry bigger and better for everybody,” Legorreta said.
Chief Sustainability Officer of the San Antonio Food Bank Michael Guerra pointed out the crucial timing of the donation as food prices have risen and UTSA and UT Health San Antonio have merged.
“It’s getting a little bit more expensive with maybe tariffs and other things that we’re facing as a nation, so we think we’re going to see more people,” Guerra said. “People like Mr. Najim here today — they’ve often been very generous when it has come to a crisis time of helping us buy food.”
While Najim’s donation has proven helpful in the San Antonio Food Bank’s efforts, Guerra believes stigma may limit outreach. As a former college student who struggled with food insecurity, he urges students to take advantage of resources.
“There’s a stigma maybe, to think ‘I don’t want to ask for food,’ especially with college students, and that was my experience as a college student. It took me about four months to finally get the courage up to ask for help,” Guerra said. “We just want to help students, and people see that it’s okay to ask for help and that it’s easy to access it.”
As food insecurity continues impacting students, Najim’s donation and the partnership between UTSA and the San Antonio Food Bank will ensure students do not have to choose between education and meals. With more mobile distribution events to be announced, students have access to another essential food resource on campus.
The Roadrunner Pantry can be found at 1.04.06 in the Student Union for the Main Campus and at 1.306 in the Durango Building for the Downtown Campus. To volunteer at the pantry, sign up on RowdyLink or email RoadrunnerPantry@utsa.edu for more information. The San Antonio Food Bank can be found at 5200 Historic, Old Hwy 90. To volunteer or find more information, go to safoodbank.org.
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