Knights’ Harvest Pantry
Photo courtesy of Copy Editor Nina Avallone-Serra
This new logo is proudly displayed in the union, located on the wall directly across from The Lamron. Go check out the new logo and snap a selfie!
The SUNY Geneseo campus pantry, Knights’ Harvest, is a student-run volunteer organization that has recently undergone several exciting changes. These include a new name, a new signature logo, and the adoption of a brand new official pantry software. These are all parts of an effort to elevate the organization and better support students experiencing food insecurity. Knights’ Harvest provides a wide variety of non-perishable, perishable, and hygiene products to any student of the SUNY Geneseo community, no questions asked. All students are eligible for pickups to offset basic needs barriers. The Pantry is also committed to providing an inclusive variety of options that meet dietary needs, including gluten-free, vegetarian, kosher, and halal.
According to Cheyenne DeMarco, the Assistant Director of Student Volunteerism & Community Engagement, Knights’s Harvest was founded in 2021 under the name, “The Pantry at Geneseo.” It was created in response to a SUNY requirement that campuses either host their own food pantry or partner with a local one. In the beginning, Knights’ Harvest served as a satellite location of the Geneseo Groveland Emergency Food Pantry, serving just 57 students in its inaugural 2021-2022 academic year. Starting in spring 2023, Knights’ Harvest began operating independently from other community food pantries by relying on funding provided by the John A. ‘87 and Mary Grace ‘84 Gleason Ambassadorship in Student Affairs, as well as additional donations from community members and organizations. In spring 2024, the SUNY Transformation Fund allocated renewable funding to campus food pantries, helping Knights’ Harvest grow into the on-campus pantry it is today. Since its creation, Knights’ Harvest has provided nearly 1,200 bags to SUNY Geneseo students, and in just four years, its physical pantry space has tripled in size in order to meet ever-growing student demand.
During the fall semester of 2024, the Pantry coordinators came up with three potential new names and asked SUNY Geneseo students to vote for the one they prefer. “Knights’ Harvest” won by a landslide and has been the official name since December 2024. Soon after, a local artist designed a logo for the Pantry, which it makes a deliberate effort to use as often as possible as a reminder to everyone that Knights’ Harvest is there for them and that they are not going anywhere. In the spring semester of 2025, the Pantry coordinators applied the signature image to the Student Union hallway just outside the GOLD Room where the Pantry resides. The same semester, the Pantry was approved to purchase pantry-specific software that is used at my other SUNY institutions with the goal of facilitating order placement and keeping track of inventory.
Knights’ Harvest has had many people reach out to them expressing their desire to support and donate to the Pantry, and that generosity has been seen and felt wholeheartedly by the team. Cheyenne DeMarco stated that Pantry workers have been instructed by SUNY Geneseo upper administration within the Student and Campus Life division to no longer accept any kind of donations, monetary or otherwise; however, the pantry still does need your help. A food pantry serving 3,500 students is a lot for only five volunteer coordinators to manage.
If you or your club or organization would like to help, they would love to have volunteers help every other Friday when they are given new food orders from CAS. Unloading, restocking, and breaking down boxes are just a few things the team can always use help with. To find additional information about Knights’ Harvest, visit their website at go.geneseo.edu/pantry and follow them on Instagram @knightsharvestgeneseo.