Supporting the academic and professional pursuits of our community

Food Pantry

To better reflect the mission of the campus food pantry, the Magic Food Bus was officially renamed the Pegasus Free Market during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Dec. 3, 2025. At the same time, the Student Senate saw the urgent need in the food pantry and voted unanimously to donate $20,000 from their reserve funds to the Pantry Market Fund, showing their commitment to ensuring no student goes hungry. The fund is administered by the MxCC Foundation.

The pantry aims to meet students where they are, ensuring access to support services on campus and at home. CT State Middlesex works to reduce the stigma of seeking help while providing essential food resources.

Food donations may be brought directly to the pantry, located in the Student Lounge in Founders Hall, Middletown campus.

Items typically provided are cereal, granola bars, water bottles, juice boxes, canned soup and vegetables, pasta, pasta sauce, macaroni and cheese, coffee, gluten-free foods, fruit cups, beans and assorted toiletries. The most-requested items are fruit snacks, pasta and sauce, canned vegetables, granola bars, soda cans and juice boxes. During Thanksgiving, the pantry collects stuffing boxes, gravy jars, cranberry sauce, brownie mix, cake mix with frosting and cornbread.

Monetary donations can be made through the MxCC Foundation.

The pantry is open throughout the academic year. Please bring your valid college I.D. to shop.

Contact: Amy Lagerstrom, Coordinator, amy.lagerstrom@ctstate.edu

Pantry Hours – Fall 2025

Middletown Campus
Monday through Thursday: 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
Friday: 11 a.m.–4 p.m.

Meriden Campus
Grab-and-go items are available at the Meriden campus at Platt High School during class hours outside the second floor library. These items include microwave meals, bags of chips, bottled water, coffee, sodas and juices. Students can also request food from the Middletown campus.

More About the Food Pantry

The Pegasus Free Market, formerly known as the Magic Food Bus, began as a mobile food pantry serving the students and staff at Middlesex Community College, now CT State Middlesex. Inspired by a similar pantry at the Norwalk campus, former Professor Judith Felton and former Coordinator of Institutional Advancement Trenton Wright led the effort to bring a pantry to the Middlesex community. After purchasing a used school bus with grant funds, students from Vinal Technical High School renovated it and brought it to the Middletown campus.

Officially opened on September 21, 2016, the goal of the pantry is to alleviate the challenges of food insecurity faced by college students and their families. The food pantry provides non-perishable and perishable items, pet supplies, personal hygiene products and menstrual products. The pantry is operated by student workers, volunteers, human service interns, and with substantial in-kind support from the campus and MxCC Foundation donors. Each year, the effort has also provided Thanksgiving food bags to students and boxed lunches during final exam week.

The pantry has seen a dramatic increase in shoppers since it began. From 2016–2021, it served about 1,848 students, aided 5,909 household members, and distributed 30,523 units of food and continued during the pandemic.

In Spring 2018, the pantry established the 7,000-square-foot Veterans Memorial Natural Garden on the Middletown campus to provide healthy produce for pantry shoppers and the local Middletown food pantry. The garden is maintained by student workers and volunteers. It was dedicated on October 16, 2019, to honor veterans.

A satellite pantry opened at Platt High School in Meriden to coordinate with the college’s evening course offerings there.

The agencies, foundations and municipal pantry supporters include the city of Middletown, the city of Meriden, the CUNO Foundation, the Community Foundation of Middlesex County, Cans-4-A-Cause, the MxCC Foundation, Connecticut Foodshare, Stop & Shop, the Fellowship Church, Newman’s Own Foundation, the Thomas J. Atkins Memorial Trust Fund, and the Rockfall Foundation. By 2022, the pantry has received over $85,000 in grants and cash donations since it began.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the food pantry closed for 6.5 months starting March 13, 2020, and provided cash and 70% of its food inventory to Amazing Grace Food Pantry and the Salvation Army while directing students to local pantries. When it reopened, operations shifted to contactless service with pre-bagged groceries, doubling monthly item limits from 30 to 60. A drive-through pop-up event was held in Spring 2021. Reduced on-campus class capacity led to a sharp drop in shopper traffic, which returned to normal by Fall 2022.

CT State Middlesex also hosted the Connecticut Foodshare Mobile Pantry every other Monday in the lower parking lot.

food pantry shelves
pantry shelves
food inside bus
Stop and Shop

In the News

Of those surveyed by the emergency food services network, roughly 30.5% of students reported that they were forced to choose between food and educational expenses at some point over the last year.

A survey of about 4,000 students across 10 community colleges nationwide found that more than half suffered from some level of food insecurity.

According to Feeding America’s 2014 Hunger in America report, roughly 10% of its 46.5 million adult clients are college students.

During the 2017–2018 academic year, the pantry served about 380 unduplicated students from 48 communities (41% from Middletown), distributing a total of 4,303 units of food!

One in every seven Americans faces food insecurity. You can help change that!

The pantry is funded in part through grants from the Community Foundation of Middlesex County, the city of Middletown, and the generosity of many other organizations and individuals.