Retriever Essentials at UMBC

04/09/2026

Special Earth Day Free Farmers Market 🌍🍎🥑

📆 Monday, April 20th 12-1pm. Commons Terrace.

We’ve partnered with Chartwells, Student Success Initiatives, ResLife, and the Office of Sustainability to bring you an additional Free Farmer’s Market during the Earth Day Fair! This market will be outside on the Commons Terrace and will be our biggest market yet!!

04/07/2026

🚨🚨For this week only (April 6th - 10th), Retriever Essentials and Parking Services is having a mini food for fines!

Food For Fines is a donation program where donating any 5 non-perishable food items and/or five toiletry items to parking services, and they will reduce one citation (up to a $50 violation 🤑) to a warning. The citation must be from the current semester, and one citation per student.

03/13/2026

Where is free food on campus? 🧐 Find out with Share Meals! 🤩

We’ve partnered with Share Meals, an app that helps connect free food with hungry people on campus. 🤝Theres often extra food leftover after meetings, events, or programs. Instead of letting that food go to waste, you can post on Share Meals and redistribute it in real time. Learn more and download the app with the QR code or by clicking the link in our bio! 🔗✨

03/09/2026

We did it!! Black & Gold Rush was incredible this year. In just 2 days, we raised $8,211 thanks to 90 generous donors and so many others who shared, cheered us on, and helped spread the word 🖤💛

Your support helps us continue providing basic needs support and makes a real difference in our community.

If you’d still like to contribute, you can visit the link in our bio to donate. Thank you for being part of this!

03/05/2026

Black & Gold Rush is officially here 🎉. Be part of UMBC’s future and show the strength of Retriever pride and generosity. Give today and nourish our community by choosing to contribute to Student Support & Basic Needs today! 🖤💛 Be sure to select Retriever Essentials under designation.🐾🍴

🔗 LINK IN BIO 🔗

02/26/2026

Good Morning, Retrievers!

If you are a UMBC student experiencing food insecurity, sign up on our intake sheet to schedule a meeting with our social work intern. Through the Spring 2026 semester, students in need can contact us at [email protected] for more information.

If you find that you require additional resources, don’t forget to visit The Essential Space on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday every week from 11am-5:30pm. Even though we are closed on Thursdays, make sure to come visit us at our Free Farmers’ Market at The Apartment Community Center on Thursdays from 2pm-2:45pm.

Have a great day!

02/04/2026

Save-a-Swipe has returned for The Spring 2026 semester!

Feel like making a difference in your community? If you own a meal plan through UMBC, you are eligible to donate to our Save-a-Swipe program! You can donate 5-10 meals to Save-a-Swipe, where they will be pooled and delegated to students experiencing food insecurity later in the semester. In the Fall 2025 semester, we broke a record number at over one thousand donated meals! These meals helped countless students across campus, combatting food insecurity one donation at a time. We are very happy to announce that our program is back for the Spring 2026 semester, and we look forward to ensuring greater quality of life for our students!

Every meal makes a difference!

Donations are open from February 3rd - February 25th

11/24/2025

Shoutout who shattered their goal of 500lbs for Food for Fines and brought in 880lbs of food and basic needs items!! This is more than double the donations from last year :) We are so grateful for your partnership and support, thank you!!

11/11/2025

On November 19th, Retriever Essentials will be partnering with mRelief in order to bring SNAP awareness to campus. Have you ever been curious to apply for SNAP benefits? In this information session, Retriever Essentials alongside mRelief partner Clarissa Chen will demonstrate how you can use their SNAP eligibility screener in order to apply for benefits. This session will cover the basics of what SNAP offers, instructions on how to apply for SNAP, as well as showing what resources students can access through their program.

Interested in on-campus resources? In this session, Retriever Essentials will help you stay up-to-date on what Retriever Essentials offers in The Essential Space, Free Farmers Market, as well as other resources on campus. We look forward to further combatting food insecurity, on and off-campus.

Interested in the event, and want to attend? Make sure to RSVP on our attendance sheet linked in our story!

11/03/2025

11/03/2025