Food Cupboard - Algonquin Students' Association


Hours of Operation

Monday, August 4 (Civic Holiday)
Closed

Monday to Friday
8:00 am to 4:30 pm


Location

Pembroke Campus, Room 100


Contact

Food Cupboard
foodcupboardsa@algonquincollege.com

Get to Know the Food Cupboard

The Food Cupboard is a discreet and confidential support service that provides students who are experiencing food insecurity with food and other basic necessities.

Who Can Access

Are you a student who is experiencing food insecurity due to one or more of the following reasons? You may be eligible to access the Food Cupboard.

  • You are in an emergency or crisis
  • You are at risk of becoming homeless
  • You are missing meals regularly
  • You are not able to afford the necessities of life
  • You are unable to work due to physical and/or mental challenges
  • You have no other avenue to find food, and you have exhausted other resources

Please note that the Food Cupboard resources are limited, and we are prioritizing those who are in urgent need of food.

If you would like to receive a list of additional resources related to accessing food, before using the Food Cupboard services or after, please contact the Food Cupboard by email.

How to Access

Qualifying students can access the Food Cupboard once every 30 days.

To use this service, please complete the intake form.

Intake Form

Funding

The Food Cupboard is funded largely by student activity fees. It is also funded by generous donations from staff, students, and community members.

Please note that the Food Cupboard’s resources are limited – we aim to serve those who need it the most.

Donations

The Food Cupboard is always accepting donations! Food donations can be dropped off at the main Student’s Association office (Room 100). Monetary donations can also be processed in Room 100.

Acceptable donations include the following:

  • Unopened, packaged, and non-perishable food donations (e.g. canned and packaged soups, canned beans, pasta, fruit, and meats)
  • Unopened personal items such as soap, toothpaste, and floss

We cannot accept any of the following items as donations:

  • Expired items or items past their best-before dates
  • Homemade goods such as cookies, muffins, etc.
  • Any perishable or frozen items (e.g. Milk, meat, fruits and vegetables, etc.)
  • Open containers of food (e.g. broken or ripped bags, partly-used tins of coffee, etc.)
  • Any items with quality concerns

Please contact the Food Cupboard by email for larger volume donations, events where you are collecting donations, or more information on donating.

FAQ

We use information from the intake form for two main reasons: to provide better, more personalized service to you and your household; and to better understand who is visiting food banks and food programs and what kind of support is needed in your community.

  • Any information you provide to a food program is stored in a secure database managed by the Ottawa Food Bank.
  • As of June 2025, most take-home grocery programs that work with the Ottawa Food Bank will have access to information in this database. Some programs will be exempt from the open network for safety and privacy reasons.
  • Only food program staff/volunteers that have been granted access to the secure database can see your personal information.
  • Summary data (for example, the number of women or seniors accessing food programs) is shared with the Ottawa Food Bank and its provincial and national partners (Feed Ontario and Food Banks Canada).
  • All of the data used by Food Banks Canada, Feed Ontario, and the Ottawa Food Bank is anonymized and/or aggregate. This means that individual personal information is not accessible, and that the data cannot be tied to you as an individual.
  • Because agencies in the Ottawa Food Bank network will share the same information, you will not need to provide the same information again if you visit different locations that are a part of the open network.

The Food Cupboard is located in room B102.

From the main entrance of C Building: After entering the doors, turn left and continue walking down the hallway (past the ‘Harvest Room’ signs). Turn left at the rainbow pillar at the end of the hall. The Food Cupboard is on the left, just before the doors leading outside.

Entering the College in the E Building (Student Commons) or the H Building: Walk past the campus store and cafeteria. Go up the ramp, cross the bridge and down the ramp (The Observatory Pub will be on your right). This will bring you to A Building. At the four-way intersection, turn left. Pass the history of Algonquin display which will bring you to the C Building. Walk past the outdoor windows on your right. At the end of the windows, turn right and walk to the end of this hall (walk past the ‘Harvest Room’ signs). Turn left at the rainbow pillar at the end of the hall. The Food Cupboard is on the left, just before the doors leading outside.

Ottawa students can access the Food Cupboard one time per calendar month.

Pembroke students can access the Food Cupboard once every 30 days.

Unfortunately, we currently do not have the means or capacity for students to access the Food Cupboard more than once a month. If you need additional food assistance between your visits to the Food Cupboard, let the Food Cupboard Coordinator know and they can provide a list of other food resources offered in the city of Ottawa. To find your local community food program, please visit https://www.ottawafoodbank.ca/get-help/ and enter your postal code to search.

Please bring your AC student card, plenty of bags to carry your items, and identification cards for other family/household members (e.g. for your spouse or children). If you are a single-person household, there is no need to bring additional identification.

 

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