USASA Pantry

Fuel your studies with fresh food!

At USASA, we’re dedicated to helping students thrive – and that starts with access to free and low-cost fresh fruit, veggies, and pantry staples. With the USASA Pantry, you can enjoy nutritious food without financial stress, so you can focus on your studies and wellbeing.

Each pantry will always have: 

• $5 for a bag of fresh seasonal fruit & vegetables

• Low-cost pantry staples 

• Free bread

Regular Pantries 

We will continue regularly at City West campus and Mawson Lakes once a fortnight.

The dates are as follows:

📍 27th of March, Mawson Lakes –F Building ⏰ 11.00 pm – 1.00 pm

📍 3rd of April, City West, Club House (formerly West Bar / N Building) ⏰ 11.00 pm – 1.00 pm

📍 10th of April, Mawson Lakes –F Building ⏰ 11.00 pm – 1.00 pm

📍17th of April, City West, Club House (formerly West Bar / N Building) ⏰ 11.00 pm – 1.00 pm

📍24th of April, Mawson Lakes –F Building ⏰ 11.00 pm – 1.00 pm

📍1st of May, City West, Club House (formerly West Bar / N Building) ⏰ 11.00 pm – 1.00 pm

📍8th of May, Mawson Lakes –F Building ⏰ 11.00 pm – 1.00 pm

📍15th of May, City West, Club House (formerly West Bar / N Building) ⏰ 11.00 pm – 1.00 pm

📍22th of May, Mawson Lakes –F Building ⏰ 11.00 pm – 1.00 pm

📍29th of May, City West, Club House (formerly West Bar / N Building) ⏰ 11.00 pm – 1.00 pm

📍5th of June, Mawson Lakes –F Building ⏰ 11.00 pm – 1.00 pm

📍12th of June, City West, Club House (formerly West Bar / N Building)  ⏰ 11.00 pm – 1.00 pm

📍19th of June, Mawson Lakes –F Building ⏰ 11.00 pm – 1.00 pm

Please bring your own bags for shopping. We will have some available but cannot guarantee a supply.

We try our best to keep our costs low and supply consistent; however, our pricing may fluctuate depending on what is available, seasonal, and cost-effective.

Due to supply fluctuations, we will need to limit the amounts of certain products so we all get to share in the produce supplied.

Receipts will not be given unless specified.

*Please note that we cannot take preorders or hold food at the USASA Pantry.
We do our best to ensure that fresh fruits and vegetables are available during our opening hours.
If you have any inquiries or need to contact the USASA Pantry, please do so via USASAPantry@unisa.edu.au

More Information

At the USASA Pantry, we are working to make a positive impact on reducing both food waste and food insecurity in Australia.
We can provide food at such a low cost to students because the food is rescued by the food relief organisation Foodbank.
All food is checked and passed onto us at a low cost so that we can pass the savings directly onto students.

Food waste is a huge issue in Australia, and Foodbank is one of the fantastic food rescue organisations that fights food waste in our country.
A little bit of information from Foodbank on food waste below.

“Did you know Australia produces enough food to feed everyone three times over? Yet 3.4 million households struggled to prepare a meal last year.
Australia creates more than 7.6 million tonnes of food waste each year—enough to fill the Melbourne Cricket Ground nine times. This waste costs the Australian economy over $36.6 billion despite 70 % of it being perfectly edible.
Around 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from food produced but wasted. In Australia, this represents 17.5 million tonnes of CO2 each year.
Australia is committed to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (12.3) to halve food waste by 2030. We have a plan to help reach that goal. Foodbank’s food and grocery rescue operations saved 86.6 million kilograms of CO2 emissions in 2022. We actively participate in Stop Food Waste Australia and the Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre, which are committed to halving food waste by 2030.”

We are happy to support Foodbank in reducing food waste while also helping alleviate some of our students' food insecurity.

Below is a brief explanation of use-by and best-before dates.

"Use-by" Date:

• This date is crucial for food safety and indicates the last date the food should be consumed to avoid potential health risks.
• Foods marked with a "use-by" date should be discarded after that date, even if they appear fine.
• It's illegal to sell food after its use-by date in Australia.
• Foods with "use-by" dates often include meat, dairy, and other highly perishable items.

"Best-before" Date:

• This date indicates the period during which the food is expected to be at its peak quality (flavour, texture, etc.).
• Foods can still be safe to eat after the "best-before" date, but they may have lost some of their quality.
• It's legal to sell food after its best-before date if it's still fit for human consumption.
• Examples of foods that often have "best-before" dates include canned goods, frozen foods, cereals, biscuits, sauces, and other similar packaged products.

We will only supply food past its “best-before” date at the Pantry.