Editor’s note: People of UW is a human interest series produced by Badger Herald staff members. The series aims to highlight a student or student group at the University of Wisconsin making an impact on the campus community. These Q&As are lightly edited for clarity and style.
Tell me about yourself. Where are you from and what are you studying at UW?
My name is Solomon Lubar. I am a junior at UW, and I’m from Mequon, Wisconsin, which is a few minutes north of Milwaukee. I am studying biology and transferred here from the University of Denver my sophomore year, and I so far love Madison.
What do you want students to know about the Open Seat Food Pantry?
The Open Seat Pantry is a student-run food pantry through Associated Students of Madison, the student body government. That’s who we’re associated with, but we’re also our own entity. The main thing at the end of the day is that we’re a free food pantry for all undergraduate and graduate students. We have a food pantry located at the Student Activity Center on the third floor that has perishable and non-perishable items. We have milk, eggs, bread, produce and then all the essential stuff, which is soups, pasta, rice and some fun stuff like cake mix, cereal and condiments. And we also have hygiene products like menstrual products, toothbrushes, razors. Kind of everything that a college student might need.
Where are you located?
We have our physical pantry at the Student Activity Center, which is open three days a week (Monday, Tuesday and Friday). Additionally, we run another program at Eagle Heights, near the hospital and lakeshore, where a lot of graduate and international students live, and families. The organization realized during COVID when they gave out boxes of food at Union South, that a lot of people who went, were from Eagle Heights. Every Wednesday, we have a pop-up distribution, where we have a truck of food that comes in and we set up three to four tables. We average 90-100 families, per hour. Each family has three to four people in them, so we end up serving 300-400 people in one hour.
How is the organization funded?
Open Seat does not get funding from the university but is funded by the ASM. The food we provide to the community is all just based off private donations. So we get all our food from the larger food bank called Second Harvests. Some of the food we get for free, some of it we pay for. Regardless, it’s free for anyone that comes to the food pantry.
How did you get involved?
I wanted to meet more people and understand the campus more. So I looked for jobs and there was a posting for this distribution director available. I applied and I got it, mainly because I had a decent background working with some food banks when I did my gap year out in Washington State. I did AmeriCorps volunteering at a food bank for about 11 months, 11.5 months. I did that for about a year out of high school, which kind of set me up for this position.
How can students get involved?
Students can volunteer any time. We’re more than happy to get volunteers. We just don’t get a ton of people reaching out. We always can find things for people to do and help out and just make life easier. We have sponsor volunteers that help when we get our big shipments on Fridays. We have to run up and down grabbing food from the delivery trucks, and there’s like a line building out the door. So volunteers are always helpful. Volunteering at the Eagle Heights location is really fun too and people really enjoy them. It’s the only time you see little kids around campus, so volunteering to talk with little kids and talk to actual people that you’re handing food out to, is always fulfilling to an extent. We also get a vehicle from UW fleet and we drive everyone out to Eagle Heights if they want to come volunteer. We take as many volunteers as possible and if anyone wants to volunteer, they can just email the Open Seat’s general email or my Open Seat email. We will definitely respond and are very happy to take volunteers.
Who inspires you the most?
I think it’s a little cheesy, but I have to say my pops. He always did volunteering and he talked about it when I was little, and kind of instilled that in my sister and me. He’s very into unions and helping everyone. He tried to expose me and my sister to how other people lived, so that really got me into volunteering. He exposed our entire family to that through his guidance, but also showing us what like life is for a lot of people. This really showed us that we should be grateful and what it’s like to do something about it.
What’s next for you?
Next year, I’ll hopefully be doing the Open Seat again, if the timing all works out. And then afterwards, hopefully med school. If that doesn’t work out, maybe a post-grad program and then maybe doing more nonprofit work because I’ve realized that through the gap year and through this, I really enjoy it. I think right now I’m in that little limbo where I’m trying to figure out what to do. But right now, I think that’s where I’m at with it.
