UC Irvine Giving Day 2025

The UC Irvine Basic Needs Center has a mission to make UC Irvine a basic needs-secure campus, ensuring every student has equitable access to essential resources, including food and housing. Meeting our students' basic needs greatly impacts their mental and physical health, academic performance, and holistic success. We strive toward this goal through student empowerment, community collaboration, and institutional integration.

Over the past couple of years, the UC Irvine Basic Needs Center has expanded our operations to a larger space and launched a Mobile Food Pantry in addition to our signature FRESH Pantry service. Both pantry models provide emergency foods to students experiencing basic needs insecurities, and the FRESH Pantry further offers toiletries. Beyond immediate relief, we aim to equip students with the knowledge and tools to develop healthy, sustainable habits to enrich their lifestyles. This academic year, we've re-launched our Budget Bites cooking workshops in collaboration with community partners to provide hands-on culinary education to students using items they can find at the pantries.

On this Giving Day, we are raising funds to increase access to a larger variety of nutritious options for our pantries. Your contribution supports the livelihoods of our students, equipping them with the necessary resources to thrive. Thank you for your generosity and consideration!

For more information on our resources and services, please refer to our website at basicneeds.uci.edu or Instagram @ucibasicneeds.

The FRESH Pantry provides groceries and toiletries to UC Irvine students facing basic needs insecurities. Students have 15 minutes to shop and can visit once a week. (Photo by Steve Zylius)