By Jennifer K. Morita

September 23, 2025

Sacramento State opened its new Basic Needs Resource Center to help students struggling with housing and food insecurity by offering free groceries, including meat and fresh produce, as well as toiletries and other necessities.

University and community leaders officially opened the center, located in The Well, during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sept. 23.

“This center is about breaking down the non-academic barriers that so often prevent students from persisting and ultimately graduating,” said Jeanne Harris Van Dahlen, senior associate vice president for Student Health, Counseling, and Wellness Services (SHCWS).

“At Sacramento State, we believe that every student deserves the opportunity to focus on their education without having to worry whether or not basic needs are being met. (The center) reflects our commitment to ensuring that the students are not only here, but that they thrive, graduate, and persist and have the opportunity to give back to society once they’re done.”

Roughly 42% of Sac State’s 31,000 students qualify for CalFresh, a federal benefits program that helps low-income households buy nutritious food, said Vice President for Student Affairs Aniesha Mitchell.

Many students face unstable housing, food insecurity, and gaps in healthcare while trying to maintain academic excellence.

“These are barriers no college student should have to face. And yet, across the country, the support systems students rely on are being reduced or eliminated entirely,” said Mitchell.

“Here at Sac State, we are choosing a different path. We are meeting this moment with compassion and purpose. We are saying clearly that student well-being is not optional.”

The center has helped more than 700 students since opening its doors earlier this month and can serve as many as 200 students a day, according to Van Dahlen.

Health Science student Brianna Gonzalez is already taking advantage of the center and the other services offered at The Well, including urgent care, a low-cost pharmacy, mental health support and more.

“Everything I need is here at The Well,” Gonzalez said. “It’s nice to have a little bit of that extra support, because a lot of times I don’t have money left to buy groceries after I pay for my gas, or my rent, or utilities.

“This allows me to get the food that I need, especially at the end of the month when I’m very low on money.”

Former Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) President Nataly Andrade-Domingeuz thanked President Luke Wood for having the vision to open the new center, which started as an idea two years ago.

“Food insecurity, housing insecurity, and financial hardship are not abstract problems,” Andrade-Dominguez said. “They are lived realities that impact focus, performance, and well-being. No student should ever have to choose between paying rent and buying groceries, or between their health and their education.”

Mitchell also thanked U.S. Congresswoman Doris Matsui for her continued support of Sac State and its students.

“The opening of Sacramento State’s Basic Needs Center reflects not only the University’s commitment to its students but also the broader principle that access to higher education must go hand-in-hand with access to essential resources,” Matsui said in a statement. “... No student should ever have to choose between completing a degree and meeting basic survival needs.

“Centers like this strengthen our community, and they demonstrate why investing in student success at the federal level is so critical to building a stronger, healthier, and more resilient future for Sacramento.”

“At Sacramento State, we believe that every student deserves the opportunity to focus on their education without having to worry whether or not basic needs are being met." -- Jeanne Harris Van Dahlen, senior associate vice president for Student Health, Counseling, and Wellness Services

Months before opening, Golden 1 Credit Union and Safe Credit Union donated nonperishable food such as cereal, canned soup, coffee, tea, granola bars, nut and sun butters, to the center.

In addition to easy-to-prepare meal kits and instant foods, the Basic Needs Resource Center will also have frozen meats, fresh produce and dairy products such as yogurt and milk.

With the rising cost of rent, groceries and gas, more Sac State students are food and housing insecure. Many students “couch surf” at the homes of friends or relatives or sleep in their cars, Van Dahlen said.

The center has put together kits in Sacramento State bags with a blanket, toiletries, a towel, t-shirt and pair of socks for housing insecure students to use.

For the approximately 30% of students who are parents, the center has diapers, baby wipes, some toys and children’s backpacks.

New and gently used clothes and shoes are also available to students.

Students can make an appointment to visit the center, which will provide a personal shopper to help them choose their groceries and supplies. Each student can come in once a week and will have access to recipes as well as cooking demonstrations in a kitchen nearby. 

The center is also partnering with local banks to teach classes on financial literacy.

The Associated Students Inc. (ASI) Food Pantry also provides students with free groceries, including fresh produce grown in the Capitol Public Radio garden.

Last year, some 500 students shopped at the Food Pantry each week.

The new Basic Needs Resource Center is located in The Well, Room 1031, and is open 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday through Friday by appointment only.