TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY
With food insecurity an ongoing concern across the U.S., Bobcat Bounty is making strides to alleviate the issue at Texas State University.
Established in 2017, Bobcat Bounty is an oncampus student-run food pantry that addresses food insecurity in and around the university. Affiliated with the Hays County Food Bank, Bobcat Bounty operates a food pantry every Monday as well as stocking nine cupboards at various sites around the San Marcos Campus that are accessible 24 hours a day.
Bobcat Bounty also maintains a food pantry on the TXST Round Rock Campus.
“We are seeing a greater demand this semester,” said Lesli Biediger-Friedman, Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Family and Consumer Science. “From what I count from our Monday pantry, we saw about 120 to 150 people in the spring of 2025. For the fall of 2025, that’s grown to 250 every Monday. So, the demand is substantially more.
“The beginning of the semester has more traffic than the end of the semester, and we like to think that students have built up their pantries and they don’t need us as much. We hope it’s because they’ve found a dependable source for food,” she said. “We do think that our December 1 pantry will be a busy pantry and we are preparing for it to be a busy pantry.”
All food stocked at the cupboards is either purchased or donated, while the food for the Monday pantries is the product of a successful, ongoing collaboration with the Hay County Food Bank with additions from local partners like Duval Family Farms. Bobcat Bounty has been able to keep up with the heightened demand this fall through the generosity of the community. Events such as Huddle Against Hunger, which tied into the TXST-University of Texas San Antonio football rivalry, and Step Up for State, have proven very successful in raising funds for Bobcat Bounty. Those funds then go toward purchasing food. Bobcat Bounty has built strong relationships with H-E-B in San Marcos as the purchase orders have grown in scale.
At any given time there is likely to be an active food drive on campus as well. Currently, the College of Fine Arts and Communication, the School of Family and Consumer Science and the Division of University Advancement are running separate food drives to benefit Bobcat Bounty during the holiday season.
“Most of the food we distribute on Mondays comes from the Hays County Food Bank. We promote giving to the Hays County Food Bank because they support us,” Biediger-Friedman said. “We’ve been serving about 250 students every Monday with the food pantry.
“In addition to that, we have expanded to stock about 70 pounds of food weekly in our three most-used food cupboards in the Family and Consumer Science Building, the Roy Mitte Building and Encino Hall. The six other cupboards around campus are distributing about 40 pounds of Bobcat Bounty food per week. There’s quite a bit of food being distributed.”
Currently, Bobcat Bounty operates through volunteers and one graduate assistant. New funding sources have opened the possibility of a full-time, salaried staff coordinator, which will significantly improve the efficiency of the food pantry. With continued strong demand, that added functionality will help Bobcat Bounty aid more people in need.
“We don’t have that person hired yet, but the donation has been secured, so we are very excited to grow the capacity in that way,” Biediger-Friedman said. “We have been successful in growing our institutional capacity through donations. We are excited about the future.”
For more information, visit bobcatbounty. txst.edu/.
Photo courtesy of Texas State University
