The Associated Students of Madison (ASM) passed a resolution written by campus food pantry staff members on Nov. 12, calling on the University of Wisconsin-Madison to provide institutional support for Open Seat Food Pantry.
The resolution, which passed with 19 votes and two abstentions, called on campus leaders to finance the pantry, saying ASM does not possess the resources to meet the demands of campus food insecurity alone.
ASM created Open Seat in 2016 as a pilot initiative to address food insecurity on campus. The fully student-run food pantry faces record-level demand for food this year amid a significant increase in visits.
Over 2,500 visits occurred in September 2025 compared to 550 visits in September 2023, according to ASM, a 355% increase in visits.
Open Seat believes ASM’s main responsibility should be advocacy for ongoing institutional support. ASM members said during the meeting that the student body in general should not be responsible for fully maintaining Open Seat “financially, logistically or emotionally.”
“Part of the reason we're bringing this to ASM is because our staff does not have the capacity to be advocating for these things ourselves,” an Open Seat staff member said during the meeting. “Our focus needs to be on keeping the pantry shelves stocked right now.”
Open Seat Internal Director Grace Van Voorst also told The Daily Cardinal she was under the impression that ASM was not allowed to fund food for the pantry, which was reinforced by comments from ASM Chair Landis Varughese during an open forum at the meeting.
ASM uses segregated fees to fund the hourly pay of five student employees and operational costs, but it will not be using segregated funding to stock food for the pantry, according to Varughese.
In fall 2024, the Board of Regents updated UW System Policy 820 to allow ASM to finance food at Open Seat. Varughese later clarified that ASM can purchase food for the pantry, and that ASM would have a conversation with Open Seat leaders if they “expressed a desire to use segregated fees to stock food.”
“Open Seat has not communicated to us a desire to use segregated fees for stocking food at this time,” he told the Cardinal. “They shared the need for more student staff and operational expenses, and I met their asks in the upcoming fiscal year budget.”
In March, the ASM Reserve Board approved a one-time transfer of $25,000 in segregated fees to Open Seat, which spent just under $24,000 of the allocation in the 2025 fiscal year, according to Bernhardt.
Additionally, in September, Open Seat received a $2,500 increase in monthly financial support through December, totaling $30,000 to use toward food purchases through Second Harvest.
ASM manages a budget of approximately $75 million.
This year, demand from the student body has significantly outpaced donations, according to Van Voorst. She said she is worried shelves will continue to empty before serving every student in need.
The pantry restocks through donations, segregated fees from students and funding from the Campus Food Access Fund, which was established three years ago and is run by UW-Madison’s Office of Student Affairs. The fund is managed by Dean of Students Christina Olstad.
Olstad, who was in attendance at the meeting but not granted speaking rights by ASM, has previously expressed interest to Open Seat in continuing support through the Food Access Fund, according to Jenny Bernhardt, communications director for Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Lori Reesor.
The resolution urges Reesor to provide tuition remission for students working with Open Seat, appoint a dedicated graduate student advisor, secure funding for a full-time professional staff member and ensure future initiatives are coordinated directly with the Open Seat team so students are not left struggling to fill gaps.
"The university recognizes the growing demand for Open Seat’s services and that food access is critical to student success,” Reesor said. “We are committed to supporting students and remain open to exploring creative and sustainable solutions to meet their needs, whether that be with Open Seat or more broadly in collaboration with the Office of Student Financial Aid and others to help students be successful."
Clara Prats, ASM’s Diverse Engagement Chair, said in the meeting that food insecurity is a widening problem, and UW-Madison has a responsibility to address it as an “institutional issue.”
“Our goal shouldn't be to simply keep up with demand. It should be to reduce the need for the pantry in the first place, and that requires meaningful institutional support,” she said. “The shelves are difficult to keep stocked, and when the university publicly promotes Open Seat as a primary food resource…the demand only increases, often without coordination or additional support.”
Ella Hanley is the college news editor for The Daily Cardinal. She previously served as associate news editor and wrote for the city and state news desks. She is a fourth-year journalism and criminal justice student. She has written breaking news and in-depth on Trump administration funding cuts to UW-Madison and local Madison people and organizations. Her work reporting on Yung Gravy has been featured in the New York Times. Follow her on Twitter at @ellamhanley.
