Hunger is growing steadily in the United States, but Kent States’ Flashes Fighting Hunger food pantry is a growing local solution.

A food security census taken by the Akron Canton Regional Food Bank showed there are 21,460 residents, equaling about 13.04% of the Portage County population according to the world population review, who have felt food insecurity in 2025 so far.

The pantry is run by four student food managers and Kalena Speicher, who is the head of the program, along with Kent State student volunteers. The pantry serves students and families within the Kent State and Portage County community through the weekly choice food pantry and kitchen shifts.

FFH gathers its food through local donors and corporations that have been partners since FFH began in 2011, Speicher said. The donors, Speicher said, are the Akron-Canton Food Bank, downtown Kent’s Scribbles Coffee Co. and the grocery chain Trader Joes.

Food recovery operates as an open volunteer opportunity that takes place around five times a week. It starts outside the Kent State University Rotunda loading dock between Wright and Leebrick halls at 9 a.m., or 9 p.m.. Food recovery starts when two student managers pick up food from Trader Joes in Woodmere, upon arrival in Kent, the food boxes are loaded onto carts and taken up the loading dock service elevator to the kitchen on the second floor of the rotunda. Inside the kitchen there are big prep tables that the food boxes are put on that allow 10-12 volunteers on each side to sort food. The kitchen has a ’90s vibe to it with its orange half-wall accent tiles and it’s somewhat dim, but efficient, lighting; “It’s like the backrooms of the rotunda,” Student Food Manager Finn Machuga said.

Once sorted, right before the food is stored, the volunteers and managers play a game called the “High-Low” game. This game is a guessing game of how much food each person thinks was recovered that night, whoever guesses the exact weight gets a singular dollar, Machuga said; “it gets people excited about the shift, and causes friendly competition.”

There is also a 5 dollar Starbucks gift card up for grabs on food recovery shifts specific to Saturdays; Saturday shifts are in the mornings so it’s difficult to get volunteers on Saturdays, the 5 dollar incentive for the High-Low game seems to be working Machuga said. Once all guesses for the High-Low game are made, if no one guesses correctly, the dollar is stashed for the next time, and the food is stored for later use in the pantry and kitchen shifts.

Kitchen shifts happen every other Tuesday.

“We make hot meals for the Kent Way senior homes,” Speicher said.

To have a meal come together for the cooking shift, the FFH managers and volunteers look through the stored food to see if there is a surplus of anything and they create a meal that can make 60 servings, Speicher said. The volunteers are guided through the cooking process to ensure all the food is up to standard and packaged properly. Some volunteers enjoy the kitchen shifts a little more than food recovery because of its timeliness during the day.

“I like the cooking shift; I was in there putting work in. It’s between my classes so it’s perfect. Last shift we made chili and cornbread,” student volunteer Brooklynn Seavers said.

The prepared food is delivered to the Kent way senior homes; the volunteers then prepare for the weekly food pantry. Every week the pantry is set up at the Tri Towers rotunda. Patrons are served at 3 p.m. The pantry is considered a choice pantry, Speicher said, patrons simply go down the line and choose what they want from each food group.

From August 2024 to May 2025, the pantry had over 13,000 visits, over 2,000 of those were new Speicher said. This is notably higher than previous years; with the patrons growing FFH is always looking for new student volunteers and help from campus organizations.

“We’ve been doing a lot of collabs with student orgs, if anyone needs a volunteer opportunity, we had the Kent State community lab, Homecoming court and a few people from the NAACP student org that helped,” Machuga said.

Students can sign up for volunteer opportunities via HelperHelper.

“It’s not a very demanding commitment and we have shifts almost everyday of the week, it’s just an hour of your time,” Machuga said.

The HelperHelper app is found in the Play Store and App Store, or through the HelperHelper website. If anyone is interested in becoming a patron to receive food, they can sign up via the appointment link on the FFH Kent State website.

Zion Williams is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].