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Keystone Foodmobile

Free, mobile food shelf for UMN students + families on the second Thursday of every month*, see location details below.

Formerly known as 'U Mobile Pantry,' the distribution events will continue under a new name: Keystone Foodmobile!

In addition to Nutritious U Food Pantry, the University of Minnesota is partnering with Keystone Services to host a mobile food shelf on the St. Paul campus at the Commonwealth Terrace Co-op! The mobile food shelf will be available to any University of Minnesota student and their families, as well as available to the public.

Free Grocery Items

Receive a variety of fresh produce, meat and dairy products, household items, and canned goods for free. Please bring your own reusable bags to the mobile food shelf if you can. 

Upcoming Dates - Mobile Pantry at CTC:       

Occurs monthly on the second Thursday from 12:00-2:00 PM (or until supplies last)   

*With the holidays and academic calendar, the next couple months vary from the standard schedule:

Where
A. Fifield Ave

North Fifield Avenue Parking Lot near Commonwealth Avenue and Ward 3

Distribution on Fifield Ave (A) if adequate parking spaces are available. Please try to avoid parking in these spaces, indicated by Zone A, on Foodmobile days. 

B. Back-up: North Lot

CTC's North/Seasonal Parking Lot,* near Commonwealth Avenue and Ward 1

If parking isn't available on Fifield Ave (A), then distribution in the north lot (B).

Keystone Foodmobile @ CTC Map - Effective Jan. 26, 2023


Keystone Foodmobile Winter Weather Policies

Temperature

If the weather is forecast to be less than 0 degrees (straight temp, not including wind chill) during the distribution, we will cancel the Foodmobile. The Foodmobile vehicles aren’t heated particularly well, so once we reach those lower temperatures it becomes very uncomfortable for staff, volunteers and participants. 

Snow

We do our best to keep on our schedule, but if there is a major storm forecasted to hit before or during service, we may cancel for the safety of the staff and volunteers driving to your site. Historically we’ve rarely cancelled distributions due to snow, the Foodmobiles are extremely tough vehicles, as are the Coordinators Maggie and Quinn.

What Happens

If we need to cancel your Foodmobile distribution, CTC will do their best to update the event communication pages as quickly as possible. The Keystone Communications team will also be informed of any cancellations, and they will update any website or social media information, as well as be ready with updated information if people call into the main Keystone phone line (651-645-0349).

Depending on when in the month the cancelation happens, we will do our best to get your stop rescheduled for within the same month. If that rescheduled timeslot stop is also cancelled due to weather, we unfortunately will be unable a second reschedule.


Additional Keystone Foodmobile Info

This is a partnership with the Nutritious U Food Pantry. The mobile food shelf is a service provided by a local food pantry, Keystone Services. So they are providing the food and funding the program. Nutritious U is coordinating the activity, advertising to food insecure students, volunteering to help distribute the food, and helping the program run smoothly. The event will be available for the public - nobody would be turned away or asked to prove that they are students or anything.

Because the University is partnering with an outside organization, there will be an intake form that the student will be asked to complete during their first visit specifically for reporting purposes, such as asking about their income and residence in Minnesota (even if you are international or have a permanent address elsewhere, if you are living in Minnesota at the time they visit the pantry, that counts as residence) and basic demographics. This is totally optional -- students will have the option to not respond if they don't want to share that information. This information is collected so that Keystone can track how many people they are serving and for funding purposes.