Boston University
04/03/2025 | News release | Distributed by Public on 04/03/2025 19:30
Video: Two Students Find Sense of Community Volunteering with Student Food Rescue
Video: Two Students Find Sense of Community Volunteering with Student Food Rescue
Community Service Center program delivers food to those in need across the city
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Video: Two Students Find Sense of Community Volunteering with Student Food Rescue
Community Service Center program delivers food to those in need across the city
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For Ocean Bruinius, arriving in Boston from Florida freshman year represented a big shift in her life. She was experiencing a lot of change, and didn't know what to expect as a student. "It kind of felt like I was going to summer camp, or something like that," she says. "It didn't truly feel like my new home."
In an effort to connect with a community, Bruinius (COM'27) joined Student Food Rescue, a program run out of BU's Community Service Center. As its name suggests, Student Food Rescue is a delivery service where students drive around Boston, picking up food from program donors and delivering it to those in need-including food pantries, shelters, and senior living communities.
The group operates with 25 different community partners, who either donate or receive food and currently has more than 100 volunteers who carry out approximately 15 different runs per week, with each run taking around two hours to complete. They typically serve those Boston neighborhoods that experience high levels of food insecurity.
Student volunteers say that they gain as much as they give by taking part in the program.
"Through SFR, seeing more of Boston and its surrounding community feels like I'm making a positive impact on those communities [and] made me feel like I was a part of it," Bruinius says. "Because I realized, even being here, I reap the benefits and resources of the people who have grown up here their entire lives."
Now a sophomore, Bruinius is one of Student Food Rescue program's managers, along with Eleanor Hoffpauir (CGS'23, Sargent'25, SPH'26). The two work together as a team to organize the deliveries, coordinate with their community partners, and facilitate runs for the volunteers.
"In thinking about food insecurity, it's really important to understand that you have to meet people where they are in that current moment, because their needs could look different next week or next month, and certainly next year," Hoffpauir says.
Both Hoffpauir and Bruinius say they've found a sense of community through Student Food Rescue. Not just with other student volunteers, but also with members of the community who live in all Boston's neighborhoods.
"Volunteering has given me friendships," Hoffpauir says. "It's given me a deeper connection to the cities that I've lived in, and it's brought me a lot closer to understanding how I fit as an individual in the community that I am a part of."
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