MSC SE Food Pantry Donations

While Minnesota State College Southeast serves fewer students during the summer months, its food pantry is still open three days a week on the Winona campus. 

Come fall, when the pantries resume regular hours of operation on both campuses, students will have even greater support and resources thanks to two generous donations. 

The Taylor Family Farm Foundation awarded Southeast a $17,000 grant to help with the cost of purchasing high-quality, nutritious food options for Southeast students. 

A separate, $5,000 donation from the Foundation for Essential Needs, will help the college purchase a new freezer, allowing more storage capacity for frozen food options. 

The grant from the Taylor Family Farm Foundation will allow Southeast to re-open its Virtual Food Pantry this year, which serves students taking online classes who do not reside in Winona or Red Wing and cannot easily access on-campus food pantries.

The Virtual Food Pantry suspended operations after spring semester 2025 due to a lack of funding and increased demand for food at the on-campus pantries. 

Tracy Rahim, Southeast’s Student Life and Basic Needs Coordinator says “This past school year saw unprecedented usage of both campus pantries,” said “We served more than 250 students and distributed more than 10,000 pounds of food during spring semester alone. These grants and donations are our lifeline to ensure that we meet our mission of building a supportive campus community by providing supplemental food support to enrolled students in need." 

Rahim said the new freezer will significantly expand the college’s capacity to serve students, giving the college more space to store frozen protein and frozen produce items from the food bank.