The Pantry

Introduction
Throughout the past few weeks, I have observed and volunteered at The Pantry on the UC
Davis campus. The Pantry is a student-run food bank that provides food and basic necessities to
UC Davis students. I found out about The Pantry by volunteering there for the Student Nutrition
Association (SNA) here on campus. The Pantry sparked my interest since I am a Clinical
Nutrition major, and I wanted to support an organization that focuses on improving the health of
individuals and preventing hunger and malnutrition. The way the Pantry works is that each
student can use up to three points per day, and each item is worth a certain amount of points.
The process is straight-forward, and it is confidential so students can lessen their worries of
feeling embarrassed or humiliated for seeking help. Along with volunteering at The Pantry, I
have become an individual who uses its services in order to compare the ways in which I am
treated when I volunteer and when I use the services offered to me. Through fieldwork and
participant observation, I have explored experience near and experience distant concepts along
with knowledge and power, and have used self-reflexivity and my knowledge of Anthropology
to analyze my experience at this field site.
History
The Pantry originated in the fall of 2010 when the ASUCD Senate voted for its creation. It was
created to provide food and basic essentials to UC Davis students struggling to pay for basic
necessities. While doing some research online, I discovered that the ultimate goal of the Pantry
is to fight hunger on the UC Davis campus (www.google.com). In other words, The Pantry was
created in order to provide food and personal items to students who do not have enough money
to pay for these basic necessities, so that they can fight hunger and improve their education

experience. The history of people who volunteer do so because they want to help those in need,
but through my past experiences I have come to the conclusion that most people now volunteer
in order to help themselves in the process. Although the history of volunteering includes helping
others, the environment in which people volunteer is not always one that is free of stress.
Field Work and Participant Observation
As I previously stated, I have completed my field work over the past few weeks at The Pantry.
Field work is the period of time an anthropologist spends among those he or she wants to
understand (Malinowski 1922:3). I have partaken in participant observation as I spent time with
my fellow colleagues in order to try to understand their thought processes and behaviors.
Participant observation is simply the observation and participation of an environment in order to
try to understand others. For example, I volunteered and received food and basic necessities,
which includes the participation aspect, and I observed the behaviors of those around me which
includes the observation aspect. While reading Bronislaw Malinowskis Argonauts of the
Western Pacific, I was able to understand what field work and participant observation are in
order to compile my research.
Encounter
When I first heard about the Pantry and its services, I was beyond excited to volunteer there and
help others. I had imagined exactly how the Pantry would look and how happy I would be as I
volunteered there, but little did I know that my expectations were far from the reality of the
situation. I had envisioned a giant warehouse stocked with thousands and thousands of food
items and basic necessities such as soap, toothpaste, tissues, and many others and was expecting
to meet many people who were as excited as me to be helping others. See, in my high school I

volunteered at the local food bank, and there were hundreds of people filling bags with certain
products and in an assembly-type manner, we would distribute these products to the less
fortunate. I expected this type of environment when I volunteered at the Pantry and was surprised
to discover that it was nothing like what I had expected. At first, I could not even find The Pantry
and when I asked a few students if they knew how to get there, they seemed confused and
informed me that they had not heard of The Pantry before. Finally, I asked a worker from the
service desk in the Memorial Union if she knew how I could get to The Pantry, and she told me I
had to take the elevator down to the basement and find room 21in Freeborn hall. When I got out
of the elevator, I was terrified! I was walking in a darkly-lit, narrow hallway that made me feel
like the giant building above me would collapse at any second. I contemplated getting out before
it was too late, but I sucked it up and found the meager, tiny room that housed the UC Davis
Pantry. The environment made me feel as if I was in a prison; it had such an uncanny and creepy
tone, and it did not help the cause that it smelled like a hospital. My hopes and expectations for
The Pantry had been completely destroyed. What had I gotten myself into? I hated this place.
After meeting Nicole-who I have named differently for privacy sake-the girl behind the rundown counter inside the confined little room that calls itself The Pantry, I began to calm down as
I shared with her the reason for my being there. I was volunteering for the Student Nutrition
Association on campus. She hesitated at first, but after a few moments of explaining how I had
signed up to volunteer there and that other students were supposed to be volunteering as well,
she finally allowed me to enter.
Experience Near vs. Experience Distant
We waited patiently for the other volunteers. Steven and Rebecca-again, these names are made
up for safety purposes-finally showed up. I was relieved to know that I would not be the only one

volunteering that morning. Nicole was an intern, not a volunteer. She worked there Monday
through Friday, and she knew everything about running The Pantry. I had recently heard about
the Pantry about a week before I volunteered there on April 18th. I did not really know what I
was supposed to be doing or how I was supposed to be doing it. Nicole began to explain the
procedures and methods of helping people when they use The Pantrys services. At first, she was
talking to us as if we knew everything, but once she sensed the confusion from the look on our
faces, she knew she had to simplify things for us. For example, she was explaining how when a
person comes, they must show their UC Davis identification card and you mark them down for
the day. I was confused because I just saw her making tally marks on a blank sheet of paper. I
then asked why she was making tally marks instead of taking down their name and she replied,
students are allowed only three points per day, and we trust that they do not take advantage of
that. I observed as she explained to the student she was helping what meals were being given
on that day. I saw cans of fruit, beans, boxes of cereal, and oatmeal on the rack that we were
awkwardly standing near, not knowing exactly what we were supposed to be doing. I recall
Nicole helping about the first ten people that showed up for food and other necessities, while me
and the other volunteers tried to grasp the same routine. I then realized that this situation
reminded me of Clifford Geertz and his idea of experience-near and experience distant concepts.
To Nicole, the running of the Pantry was an experience-near concept; she was very familiar with
the tasks she had to fulfill and how she would fulfill those tasks. To me and the other volunteers
however, the experience was a very experience-distant concept, since we were not familiar with
how the running of the Pantry worked exactly.
Knowledge

Regardless of whether Nicole knew more things about The Pantry than us, we still tried our best
to fulfill our volunteering duties and work efficiently. I remember talking to the other volunteers
and to Nicole about our majors and what we wanted to do after we graduate. The volunteers,
including myself, were nutrition and food science majors. Nicole was a chemical engineer major.
I remember sensing Nicole feeling like she did not belong in our conversation, since the
volunteers were talking about nutrition courses they have taken and other places they have
volunteered that relate to nutrition and health. Nicole was simply there because it was her job to
be there, and she was getting paid for it. I could immediately feel the tension between Nicole and
me and the other volunteers. We both believed that we knew more about the Pantry since Nicole,
having been an intern there throughout this past year, knew how to run all of the tasks without a
doubt, and the volunteers knew more about nutrition and why a service such as this one is both
beneficial and necessary to assure the health of students on campus. This situation reminded me
of the Ania Loomba reading we did in class about colonialism and knowledge. This does not
relate so much to colonialism, but indirectly it conveys the fact that one group of people thought
they were better than the other because of the education they have received-both Nicole relating
to knowledge about the Pantry, and the volunteers relating to knowledge about nutrition. As
Loomba discusses in her article, first encountersmark a new way in thinking about, indeed
producing, these two categories of people as binary opposites (Loomba 2005: 57). The
polarized belief that each of us knew more than the other categorized us as two separate beings
that are complete opposites of each other.
Power
Aside from the battle between who knew more about the Pantry than the other, there was also a
power dynamic between both groups. Despite the fact that the volunteers felt they had some

knowledge over Nicole, she still held more power than us since she actually worked there and
had the power of choosing to sign our time cards or not. This aspect did make me feel like I was
inferior to Nicole because she was actually an intern, but I was only a volunteer. I even felt that
she was better than me because she held that position of power. As I was leaving for class after
volunteering for about an hour, I stepped out of the small room and presented Nicole and the
volunteers with my identification card. Id like a box of cereal please, I said. I will never forget
the shocked looked of confusion on their faces as a result of my actions. At that very moment, I
felt exactly how I envisioned other students who get help to feel. I felt like I was being viewed as
a homeless person and like Nicole and the other volunteers felt that they were better than me
because they were actually doing something productive and succeeding in their life. They looked
at me like I had betrayed them by pretending to be someone who helps others and who does not
seek help, when in reality I did ask for help. This situation reminded me of Anne Fadimans, The
Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. I couldnt help but think of how horrible I felt at that
moment. I empathized with the Lee family about feeling helpless and worthless because they
didnt speak English and could not afford Leahs healthcare without the help of government
finance. They knew that even though Leah was their child, she was taken from them because the
doctors had the power to do so since they did not comply with the medication dosage of Leah
(Fadiman 2012). I then realized that regardless of where one is, there will always be a struggle
with power and one party is bound to feel superior and more powerful than the other.
Concluding Thoughts and Experiences
I got a chance to interview Rose Garcia, the head SNA officer in charge of informing group
members of upcoming volunteering opportunities on May 9th. She volunteered at the Pantry the
week before I did. I asked her to share with me her reasons for volunteering at the Pantry. Do

you want me to be completely honest? she asked, and as I nodded, she smiled and said, I
volunteer for all of the free things I get afterward. Also, I can put my volunteering hours on a
resume. Although this was sad to hear, I knew it was true. Many people volunteer while
thinking of how it will benefit them, and they have forgotten the true meaning of what
volunteering is supposed to be about, which is helping other people. As of now, most people
only volunteer in order to help themselves in the long run. It is challenging to admit, but I
realized that although I volunteer to help others, there is that subconscious feeling of wanting to
volunteer in order to help myself in the future. I was able to understand this and understand both
the mindset of a volunteer and that of an individual who seeks help from the services at The
Pantry through the use of self-reflexivity. I was able to identify the things that go on in a given
environment and was able to analyze the experiences I was placed under. I was able to strip
myself of current beliefs in order to view the world from a different perspective, and most
importantly, I was able to step out of my comfort zone-into a place that made me feel
uncomfortable, and was still be able to understand that there are many ways in which the world
can be viewed. With this in mind, we should all be open to new experiences and willing to take
chances in life. It can only help you grow as a person after all.

References
ASUCD Senate. Long Range Plan: The Pantry. Davis: 2010. Print. Retrieved from
www.Google.com on 2 June 2013.
Fadiman, Anne. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. New York: Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 2012. Print.
Garcia, Rose (Pseudonym). Personal Interview. 9 May 2013.
Loomba, Ania. Colonialism/Postcolonialism. USA: Routledge, 2005. Print.
Malinowski, Bronislaw. Jargonauts of the Western Pacific. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1922.
Print.