Open Pantry

That’s awesome! Thank you for your generosity. Whether you make an in-kind or monetary donation, it will go to work right away.

I would like to donate monetarily:

If you are planning to donate monetarily to help expand our shopping list, this can be done in a variety of ways such as:

• Online – You can also donate using a credit or debit card or with alternative payment methods like Venmo, Paypal, Apple Pay, or Google Pay.
• By Phone – Call in your credit card gift using the Macalester Fund’s toll-free number: 866-814-0640
• By Mail – Checks should be made payable to Macalester College and mailed to:

Macalester College
Advancement
1600 Grand Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55105

You will need to specifically designate your gift to the Open Pantry. If you are donating online, please select “Other” as your designation. Next, write in “Open Pantry” as your designation comment or into the field directly (if you are using the Macalester Give Campus page) and complete the rest of the form. If you are donating by phone, please make sure to let the person you are speaking with know that you want your gift to support Open Pantry. If you are donating via check, write “Open Pantry” in the memo line.

Your gift is processed through the Macalester Fund and then becomes available for Open Pantry to directly purchase food, household, and personal care items. Designating your gift allows your donation to be used to stock our shelves right away. If you have any questions about being a donor, please contact the Macalester Fund at [email protected] or 651-696-6909.

We have seen a sharp increase in usage of the Open Pantry during the 2022-2023 Academic Year. Your generosity goes to work immediately, helping Macalester students experiencing food insecurity. Thank you for helping us serve as many students as possible.

I would like to donate physical items:

If you are planning to donate physical items, please consider following what we consider the golden rule to be – if you wouldn’t pay full price for the items you are donating, please keep them at home. 

Experiencing food insecurity in both acute and chronic circumstances is filled with shame and stigma. We want those who use Open Pantry to feel welcome and find what they need. Extremely niche, used, opened, and/or expired items can make folks feel shamed, and they end up taking up space on our shelves we don’t have to spare. Items that are opened, used, expired, or lacking ingredient labels also violate health guidelines, and having them put on our shelves can compromise the status of our service.

We do not accept food, personal care, or household items that need refrigeration, are expired, are homemade, have damaged packaging (IE, dented, bloated, cans), baked goods, or pre-used items.

All donations must be entered into our inventory and checked over by one of our staff members to ensure they meet our standards. You can drop donations off at Campus Center Office 233, where we will begin that process.