The Basic Needs program provides food and housing services and resources to help alleviate food and housing insecurity in our community.
Basic Needs
Food Insecurity
If you have trouble meeting your basic needs such as being hungry or worried about when your next meal will be, one of our Basic Needs programs can assist you.
Looking to support the Big Blue Pantry with a donation?
Additional Food Resources
SNAP Benefits
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, helps low-income individuals and families buy food at participating stores. Requirements and benefits vary by state. You can click here to view information about Kentucky's SNAP program. This webpage also includes a link to the application.
Housing Insecurity
Our Basic Needs model includes links to local resources, prevention services and supportive services to assist students from losing their housing and emergency services to support students who are unhoused or at imminent risk of losing their housing.
We understand that housing security is a necessary part of being able to thrive as a student at UK. The impact to student’s mental, physical health and academic achievement and progress and their sense of belonging can be impaired with housing insecurity. We are here to help and define housing insecurity as the following:
- Unhoused
- Couchsurfing
- Living in a vehicle
- Commuting a significant distance
- Dealing with habitability issues (lack of heat or water, mold, no windows, unable to meeting accessibility needs)
- Having been scammed/defrauded
