Little Ram Pantries receive upgraded technology to help address student food insecurity

By Brian McNeill

Sixteen Little Ram Pantries located across Virginia Commonwealth University's two campuses have received a technology upgrade, allowing students to view real-time photos of the pantries' contents before visiting.

Launched in 2021, the Little Ram Pantries provide free food and essentials for any VCU student who needs it. Contents typically include shelf-stable snacks, grab-and-go items, canned goods and personal hygiene products.

Inspired by the concept of Little Free Libraries, the Little Ram Pantries are a miniaturized extension of VCU's Ram Pantry, which has provided food and other items to VCU students in need since 2014. Both the Little Ram Pantries and the Ram Pantry aim to mitigate food insecurity, which is estimated to affect more than one-third of college students nationwide.

Over the summer, upgraded sensors were installed in Little Ram Pantries , including inward-facing cameras that show current inventory at each location, a "heartbeat" indicator that indicates the location is online, and improved overall stability. The new technology enhances the ability to monitor usage and gather useful data.

"I really hope students bookmark the website and use it to see what's [available in the Little Ram Pantries] and go grab what they need," said program creator John Jones, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the School of Life Sciences and Sustainability in the College of Humanities and Sciences. "The pictures are the current inventories of each of the locations. So, say you were looking for a box of pasta, for instance. You could visit the website and see, 'OK, well, Harris Hall has some macaroni and cheese.'"

Engineering students play key role

The sensor technology was developed by two cohorts of VCU College of Engineering students' capstone projects, along with Lauren Linkous, Ph.D., a VCU engineering research scientist who has worked on the project for more than six years.

"I've been with the Little Ram Pantry project since the start of my graduate program, when I met John Jones through another project," Linkous said. "I was brought on to build the initial prototype, just to see if we could quantify what we were working with. That first device was simple: It wrote to a spreadsheet whenever a pantry door opened and closed. But we got data, and the data was telling us a story. Students were using these pantries, and now we had a record of engagement to bring with us to secure more resources."

The project grew from there, she said. Within a few years it included capstone teams, student collaborators and more people anchoring every aspect of the work.

"From the technical side, the sensor systems give us a way to put numbers to need without ever identifying a student," Linkous said. "That data is how we justify the program, grow it and get more food where it's needed. It's been a major interdisciplinary effort, and I'd love to see more problems solved that way, especially ones with this kind of immediate community benefit."

Josh Hayes, who graduated in 2024 with a degree in computer science, helped develop the Little Ram Pantries technology.

"Choosing the Little Ram Pantries as my capstone project was one of the best decisions I made during my time at VCU," he said. "Developing and iterating over this technology, first as a student among a group of peers and then for John with Lauren's mentorship, has not only taught me so much but has allowed me to give back to my community in a way I never initially imagined. I am grateful to have helped develop technology to solve a real problem and strengthen a program that provided me with assistance when I was a student in need. I hope that the upgraded technology inside the pantries allows for more people to have access to food."

The technology at work

The sensors track usage, based on when the box's door opens and closes. The camera snaps a picture of the box's inventory a few seconds after the door closes. The camera never takes a photo of a person who is getting food from a Little Ram Pantry.

The data feeds to an online dashboard that provides a variety of insights into how the Little Ram Pantries are being used. For example, in the past three months, there have been 1,328 visits to the locations, with the busiest day occurring on Aug. 12. The Little Ram Pantry located at the School of Dentistry received the most visits, with 244 interactions.

Little Ram Pantries are Jones' ongoing research initiative to reduce food insecurity for VCU students. Food found in the pantries flows through donations and purchasing by the main Ram Pantry on Grace Street, and Jones' undergraduate students distribute it across both campuses on a monthly basis.

Individual administrative units "adopt" a pantry near their space. Generally, on Wednesdays, adoptees will restock the pantries and check to ensure the pantry is functioning as intended.

The Little Ram Pantries project often seeks feedback from students. Several have told the team that they are reluctant to take food when only one or two items remain, as they believe someone else might need it more. In response, Jones encouraged students to take the food if they need it.

"If they have that thought, they should just go ahead and take it," he said. "We've done a lot in the last couple years to increase the supply of food coming onto campus to stock both the main Ram Pantry as well as the little pantries, and now that we have the cameras, we'll have a better sense of when they're empty so we can go refill them. If you feel you need it, it's for you. Take it."

'This is an experiment'

Jones' central research question behind the Little Ram Pantries is whether decentralized, anonymous food pantries can mitigate food insecurity among college students.

"This is an experiment," Jones said. "We're trying to see: Does this work? Is this an effective way of connecting food resources with food insecure students?"

A 2024 paper - "Smart Little Campus Food Pantries: Addressing food insecurity at Virginia Commonwealth University," published in the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development and led by Jones - found that users interacted with Little Ram Pantries roughly 7,700 times during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 academic years. About 10% of users frequented the pantries in the middle of the night.

For both technical and ethical reasons, data from the pantry sensors cannot identify unique users, but Jones believes the data pattern, as well as focus group data, suggests students are using the pantries.

Over the past several years, the program has expanded to more locations on both campuses. And in fall 2024, Jones launched Ram Fridges - essentially refrigerated Little Ram Pantries - in response to student requests for more fresh food, including fruits and vegetables.

Supported by a three-year, nearly $500,000 grant from the USDA's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program, the Ram Fridges mitigate food waste and help feed students by diverting unsold food from Shafer Court Dining Center to refrigerators in Cabell Library and the Cary Street Gym. Two additional Ram Fridges are planned: one on the sixth floor of the STEM Building and one in the College of Health Professions.

The Ram Fridges do not currently have the upgraded sensor technology. Additionally, the Little Ram Pantry in Cabell Library does not yet have the new sensor.

What and how to donate

Anyone is welcome to donate shelf-stable food items into the Little Ram Pantries. Anything that can be stored safely in a cupboard for a long period of time is acceptable. Examples include canned goods; dry boxed food like pasta, rice and beans; bags of dry cereal grains as well as easily consumable snacks like granola bars.

Individuals or groups interested in making larger donations are encouraged to make a donation to the Ram Pantry. For more information about how to assist with Ram Pantry's operations, visit the pantry webpage.