Food assistance - University of Wollongong

Free food assistance for UOW students

Food assistance is available to current UOW students during these times when we are not all together on our campuses – this includes support at UOW and in the wider community.

To date, this has been supported through the generosity of UOW staff as well as members and organisations in the wider UOW community through the Food+ with Care Project, the Study NSW and Foodbank Partnership, as well as the Pulse Pantry.

How to access food assistance

Pulse Pantry

The Pulse Pantry is a new initiative to continue supporting UOW students on the Wollongong campus. This has been designed to assist students that may be experiencing financial hardship and food insecurity.

Please visit the Pulse Pantry website for current opening hours and further information.

Further information and support

Contact a Student Support Coordinator
Low cost and free meals are available to the UOW community throughout the Wollongong area - further information is available through the Fair Food Directory or through Wollongong City Council
Sydney area - further information is available through Study NSW

Food+ with Care Project

Due to the incredible generosity of UOW and UOW Pulse staff, students, as well as the wider UOW community, UOW’s Food+ with Care Project has donated pantry packs to over 4000 students in need across Wollongong and Sydney.

Sarah: The food initiative started as a weekly opportunity to just provide students with a grocery bag of food. It's now what's called the Food+ with Care project, and it's supported by UOW staff, UOW Pulse staff, community, students and our community partners.

So we're providing pantry items and fresh fruit and vegetables every week so that they can actually go top up their supplies that they might have or also feed themselves for a week.

Thanks to the collaborative nature of this project, we've been able to support over 4000 students across those 18 weeks, both in Sydney and in Wollongong.

When you get to actually volunteer on a Saturday, it's so lovely. You get to chat with students and they're just so grateful. They just love to see the faces of UOW staff. They know that we care, and it's been really, really amazing.

Because it's such a big problem and such a needy cause, no one organisation has the resources to do this. So it really has taken the people power of staff, community and our students and community organisations to support our less fortunate students.

Sarah: The food initiative started as a weekly opportunity to just provide students with a grocery bag of food. It's now what's called the Food+ with Care project, and it's supported by UOW staff, UOW Pulse staff, community, students and our community partners.

So we're providing pantry items and fresh fruit and vegetables every week so that they can actually go top up their supplies that they might have or also feed themselves for a week.

Thanks to the collaborative nature of this project, we've been able to support over 4000 students across those 18 weeks, both in Sydney and in Wollongong.

When you get to actually volunteer on a Saturday, it's so lovely. You get to chat with students and they're just so grateful. They just love to see the faces of UOW staff. They know that we care, and it's been really, really amazing.

Because it's such a big problem and such a needy cause, no one organisation has the resources to do this. So it really has taken the people power of staff, community and our students and community organisations to support our less fortunate students.