Basic Needs Services

Boyd brings fresh ideas and faces to the Jamil Niner Student Pantry

By Wyatt Crosher, Assistant Director of Communications for Student Affairs

In less than two years with the Jamil Niner Student Pantry, Josh Boyd has already made his mark on campus food insecurity, and his efforts were recognized with a Newest Student Affairs Team Member award at last spring’s divisional awards ceremony.

The award nomination highlighted Boyd’s “immediate” impact and his ability to “enhance the student experience,” but Boyd, the program director for basic needs services, feels like he is just scratching the surface on his ambitions with the pantry.

“When I first came in, I was like, ‘We're going to do all of these things. It's going to be great,’ but then you realize you really have to take care of those smaller things at first, because they actually are the larger things at the moment,” Boyd said. “I tell my supervisor all the time, I feel like this is the semester where we really start to get things rolling in terms of doing more partnerships, being more impactful with the programming that we're doing.”

Boyd wasn’t sure exactly what he wanted to do after graduating from UNC Pembroke in 2019. He went to undergrad for counseling and worked in admissions, and was trying to figure out how to turn these passions into a career.

Then, after COVID-19, Boyd ultimately found a home at UNC Charlotte. At first, it was in the Cato College of Education through the educational leadership graduate program, but Boyd felt the stars aligned when looking for a new role at the University.

“I started applying for jobs, I kid you not, as soon as I applied to the program coordinator position for New Student Orientation, they called me, like, immediately after I submitted it,” Boyd said. “It felt like a little bit of a sign, right?”

Working with NSO for more than two years taught Boyd important skills in organization and operations, and he loved the experience of working with students. But Boyd wanted to be involved with student success past the introductory phase, which made the role in basic needs services feel like the right fit. 

“I was hearing a lot of the financial struggles that students are going through,” Boyd said. “I'm helping them through orientation, but it wasn’t necessarily as hands-on as I wanted to be.”

In his first year and a half with the pantry, Boyd’s focus on the “smaller things” has included improved electrical work in the house, with improved circulation of heat and air conditioning, which also now extends to the pantry’s garage. The pantry also increased its availability by an extra day per week, moving from two to three days of operations to allow for more options from its customers.

Boyd has also been focused on new ways to get the pantry’s supplies to the student body. While the Jamil Niner Student Pantry — located at 1224 John Kirk Drive — is on campus, its placement was seen as a potential barrier. Basic needs services’ new Rec Re Lockers plan to help overcome that barrier, with mobile orders from the pantry becoming available to be picked up at Atkins Library or Belk Gym.

With all of the work Boyd has put into the pantry, his long-term goals are to leave a lasting legacy at the University. But earning an award for his services has nothing to do with Boyd’s personal definition of what that legacy would mean.

“Whenever my role is done, whenever that time comes, I want it to be better than when I got it,” Boyd said. “Legacy, to me, is the passing of the torch. The work that I'm doing now is for that next person. I want it to be bigger and better, and the next person that comes in after me, please outdo me. But I also know that in order to do that, you have to have the right tools to get it done.”

That next person will have big shoes to fill.

Going forward, Boyd hopes to bring more partnerships to the pantry and has added a full-time staff member which will help him continue to pursue larger ventures. 

He is also excited for the NC Hunger Challenge, where each year North Carolina universities compete to earn points by organizing events that raise awareness of food insecurity, nutritional education and wellness resources available in their communities.

All of this progress led to Boyd’s honor last spring. While it’s not an award he anticipated winning, Boyd felt gratitude for hearing the nomination and seeing his efforts rewarded.

“When you're doing this work, you're there every day. You might be sweating it out, you might be stressing out a little bit, but you also have those good moments as well. You are not only a staff person, you're a volunteer, a supervisor, a community partner, you fundraise. You wear a lot of hats,” Boyd said.

“Hearing those words and seeing them on the screen just solidified into me that we're doing good work. It’s not what you do it for, but I think those moments help you to understand the impact that you have, not only on the students, but also on the folks that you work with.”

Interested in volunteering at the Jamil Niner Student Pantry? Learn more here.