February Newsletter

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 10:29:13 -0500

Hello everyone! We hope you had a restful winter break, and are ready for the spring 2026 semester!

We're planning on having a monthly newsletter to keep you posted on all of our updates, services, and everything happening with Retriever Essentials!

New and Improved Services:

Sharemeals:

In partnership with Sharemeals, this app is an upgrade from our previous "Where's Free Food At" notification board, and allows students, staff, and faculty to post about food left over at campus wide events!

To get started, download the app via iOS or Android and log in using your university credentials. Once completed, double check and make sure you e

enabled notifications for the app in order for it to work efficiently. You will then be notified whenever someone posts about having surplus left over food at an event!

Note: If you feel like you don't have a lot of leftover food, but they're mainly unopened snacks/drinks, feel free to put them in our donation boxes around campus! In addition, be sure to put the start and end time for when food is available for grabs, not when the event itself starts and ends.

"Food for Thought" Vending Machine:

We already have our 24/7 mini pantry at the UMBC Police Station, and now get ready for our 24/7 FREE vending machine in the Retriever Learning Center (RLC) which also uses the Sharemeals app!

To get started, open up the Sharemeals app and scan the QR code at the vending machine in order to be automatically connected to it.

Complete a quick survey to earn points, and use those points to select items in the vending machine!

(Also, shoutout to Angel Phinney for the title)

Save-a-Swipe:

Last year's Save-a-Swipe was absolutely amazing! We had a record shattering amount of over 1,000 donated meal swipes!

Every meal will go to a student in need, and we are truly grateful for every donation that you all gave us!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd1YG5IOcY9uwNMWR_6NSc7YsOO2GhNCwDv6SmAX94RTp3AZQ/viewform

Speaking of donations…

Donation Shoutout:

Brief Shoutout to all who've donated money, food, or household essentials in December and January!

Chartwells

Anonymous Amazon Donations

Family Advisory Board

The Athletics Department

Student Media Collective

UMBC Bookstore

Dottie Glorioso

Emma Sigrist

Health and Promotion Office

Office of Undergraduate Admissions and Orientation

Human Resources & Strategic Talent Management

UMBC Financial Services

Miriam Suldan

Division of Institutional Equity

The Hilltop Institute

Wisdom Institute

Graduate Student Association

Student Government Association

Office of Sustainability

We appreciate you so much for your contributions to our mission! Each and every ounce counts!

Data:

Strictly for January alone, we've already distributed 3.3k lbs worth of food! This includes calculations from our Free Farmers Market on Thursdays, our mini pantry, and vending machine.

Suggestion Box:

To improve on our services, and try to address everyone's different needs, we would love to hear your feedback!

https://forms.gle/oUvd1EaMcmmasKFn8

That pretty much wraps up our first newsletter of the semester! Thank you so much for taking the time to read it!

If you have any questions about what we provide, volunteering opportunities, or general inquiries, feel free to email us at retrieveressentails@umbc.edu at any time!

Sincerely,

The Retriever Essentials Team