At a university with an approximately $10.7 billion dollar endowment, eradicating food insecurity for all students should be a top priority of Student and Campus Life. If students are unable to meet their basic needs, how can they be expected to excel academically or meaningfully contribute to campus life?
If there’s anywhere SCL should be investing, it’s Anabel’s Grocery.
During my time at Cornell, Anabel’s has become my grocery haven — quaint, convenient and comprehensive. And I’m not alone: students are expressing their support through a petition, currently with over 2,500 signatures.
So, when I learned that Cornell is cutting funding for Anabel’s Grocery and the Center for Transformative Action, effectively stripping away $100,000 in annual funding after 53 years of support, I was both saddened and outraged. This change, set to take effect at the end of the 2027 fiscal year, leaves the Center for Transformative Action scrambling to find alternative funding sources in the meantime.
According to the 2021 Cornell Undergraduate Experience survey, 12.5 percent of undergraduates reported that they very often ate less than they felt they needed because of the cost of food on campus. A combined 29.1 percent of undergraduates reported that they either “very often,” “often” or “occasionally” ate less than they felt they needed because of lack of money to buy food.
From the more than 600 testimonials of current and former students, it’s clear Anabel’s has been instrumental in supporting students through food insecurity.
Yet, even as Cornell currently advertises Anabel’s as one of their solutions for students seeking food security online, the University is actively defunding it. One alternative Cornell points to is the Cornell Food Pantry — a necessary resource, but one that requires students to register, creating a barrier for students who may not be aware of the resource or whose circumstances may have changed during the semester.
Further, the food pantry’s website references “serving more students, staff, and faculty than ever before,” and that certain items have been running out more quickly than the pantry is able to replenish them. If the University acknowledges that the demand for food assistance is rising, then how can it possibly justify cutting funding for a key food access point, one that would likely relieve stress off alternative solutions to food security?
Anabel’s isn’t just about affordability — it's about accessibility. Anabel’s is the only on-campus vendor that accepts SNAP benefits. Most of the grocery stores in Ithaca require vehicular transportation, which can be a serious barrier to time-crunched students struggling to balance heavy course loads, especially given the inconsistency of the TCAT. For students working to pay rent and grocery bills, Collegetown lacks affordable options: Greenstar is inordinately expensive, and the 7-Eleven also tends to hike prices up for the few grocery products they do stock.
The University’s third so-called solution is Swipe Out Hunger, a nonprofit that redistributes student-donated Big Red Bucks to those in need. While I commend the work of Swipe Out Hunger, it seems convenient for a university with a $92,150 sticker price to offload student welfare onto other students.
How can SCL effectively take away their only other funded solution to this gaping issue, when the SCL website plainly cites that one in three college students experience food insecurity?
Cornell’s justification to this question falls flat. Dean of Students Marla Love claims that the partnership is ending because CTA no longer aligns with the original mission of Cornell United Religious Work. Fine. But what about the very real necessity for SCL to support the holistic well-being of our student population?
When I read through testimonials from students impacted by Anabel’s, I came across a message my friend (and Lifestyle Editor) Kira Walter ‘26 had written that really encapsulated how I was feeling.
“There is a culture of empathy and activism around this project that isn't always present on campus,” Kira wrote. “This university fosters a cut-throat environment in which undergraduates often feel uncared for, but Anabel's works in contrast to this trend.”
She’s right. Out of the many aspects of the Cornell experience, Anabel’s Grocery has been a rare constant that provides a warm, familiar presence to students: a sign that others are looking out for them. I can’t imagine new classes of students entering Cornell without the support that I — and many others — have felt at Anabel’s. I don’t think they should have to.
Carlin Reyen is a third year student in the College of Arts and Sciences. Her fortnightly column Just Carlin’ It Like It Is centers around student life, social issues, Cornell life hacks and the university’s interactions with the broader community. Carlin can be reached at creyen@cornellsun.com.
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Carlin Reyen is a fourth year student in the College of Arts and Sciences. Her fortnightly column Just Carlin’ It Like It Is centers around student life, social issues, Cornell life hacks and the University’s interactions with the broader community. Carlin can be reached at creyen@cornellsun.com.
