The Associated Students, Inc. Pop Up Pantry was out in Serna Plaza on Monday, Nov. 16, 2015.

The Pop Up Pantry was created as an extension of the Food Pantry in Yosemite Hall offering fresh produce at no cost to students.

“It helps students focus more on education, studying and tests and to stop them from worrying about food stuff; getting them the nutrition they need to carry on,” said Timothy Baumbach, executive director of the Central Downtown Food Basket. “We have seen closer to 300 students today.”

The Pop Up Pantry was created in an attempt to provide healthier eating options to students, partnering with the Central Downtown Food Basket.

“It was to raise awareness of the existence of the Food Pantry on campus, by bringing it into a more open area that students would frequent a lot,” said Davin Brown, director of Student Engagement & Outreach for ASI. “We then talked about those healthier produce options; how can we take the Pop Up Pantry and provide healthier produce options.”

Besides having fresh produce, the Pop Up Pantry had a representative from CalFresh handing out information. CalFresh is federally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and can add to your food budget to put healthy and nutritious food on the table.

“It’s all about nutrition, fruits and vegetables and eating healthy food,” said Lorena Carranza, CalFresh outreach manager. “Part of our job [at CalFresh] is to reduce the stigma. For many years people thought it is a welfare program, it is not, it’s a nutrition program.”

Students were welcome to take produce after they signed a list as a means to record the number of students served.

The Pop Up Pantry will be available to students in the spring semester on the following Mondays: February 16, March 28, and April 18, 2016.