Swipe It Forward
The Swipe It Forward program provides free dining hall meals to students who are having difficulty finding their next meal. Tufts Dining seeds the meal bank at the start of each semester, and students may donate meals from their meal plans throughout the semester.
Donate
- Any student with a meal plan can donate up to 10 meals per semester.
- Donations may take up to 14 business days to process. If your meal balance is low, donations may not be processed. Check your balance, visit the JumboCash website.
Request
Current Status: Swipe it Forward currently has meals in the bank and requests are usually processed in 1 to 3 business days. The volume of requests is currently outpacing donations. If we come to a point where the Swipe it Forward bank is exhausted, requests submitted will be queued to be fulfilled in the order they were received.
- All students in the School of Arts and Sciences, the SMFA at Tufts, and the School of Engineering are eligible to receive meals.
- Students can receive up to 15 free meals per semester.
- A student's account balance must have fewer than 5 meals at the time of request.
- You do not need a meal plan to receive a meal.
- Requests for swipes are processed within 2 business days of a completed submission.
Free Food Notifications
One way to provide access to food is to ensure that food we already have is not wasted. To that end, all members of the Tufts community are invited to share free food. When student organizations, groups, departments, offices, or others have meetings, social events, retreats, and other programs, there is sometimes food remaining at the end of the event. Anyone can post the available food. When food availability is posted, everyone who has signed up for notifications receives an invitation to come get the described food. An extra pizza at the end of a study session, bagels and coffee ordered for a staff meeting that was cancelled, or remaining meals following a large catered event are all of value to people in our community and can be offered.
Post Available Food
You can post that food is available by using the Tufts Mobile app or filling out this form.
Sign Up for Free Food Notifications
You can choose to be notified by email or by push notification when available food is posted.
Eligibility and Details
- Please be aware that perishable food is not safe to eat if it has not been at proper temperature for more than four hours. For most perishable foods, proper temperature is either below 40˚F (i.e., refrigerated) or above 140˚F (i.e., cooking). See information about food safety from the CDC. Given this, please post available food as soon as possible to allow people to pick up and consume the food during the safe window of time.
- The Free Food eList started as a joint initiative of the Tufts Food Rescue Collaborative and the TCU Senate in 2018. App functionality was rolled out in 2025 as a collaboration between undergraduate students, the Dean of Students Office, Tufts Technology Services, Tufts Dining, and the Food and Nutrition Innovation Institute at Friedman School.
- The Free Food e-list is available to all members of the Tufts community – students, faculty, and staff.
- Any amount of food and any type of food is acceptable to offer—from a few snacks to a large number of full-size meals.
- Please be respectful with free food sharing and use it only for its intended purpose. If posting the list on a public website, please use techniques to prevent it from being scrapped. This helps prevent spam messages being sent to the list.
Jumbos Community Fridge
Jumbos Community Fridge and pantry is available to students experiencing food insecurity. The fridge and pantry are located on the east side of Dewick-MacPhie Dining Center on Talbot Avenue and are accessible 24/7, year-round. Jumbos Community Fridge serves as a place for excess items to be shared, helping to reduce food waste on campus.
SMFA Food Pantries
The SMFA Community Food Pantry is located inside of the Dean’s Suite (230 Fenway, B203). Feel free to take what you need. The Pantry consists of food items such as rice, pasta, canned vegetables, fruit cups and granola bars. This is a community wide initiative, and we invite students to donate what they can. Non-expired, non-perishables will be accepted.
The Mission Hill Food Pantry is open to students experiencing food insecurity located on the second-floor student lounge of 160 Saint Alphonsus Street. The pantry is available 24/7 to SMFA graduate students and during building hours for all other students. Please consider dropping off some donations if you have excess food you’d like to share!
Food Emergency Fund for International Students
Tufts-sponsored international students who experience unforeseen hardship should contact the International Center regarding emergency financial assistance programs. Emergency grants for expenses, including food-related costs, may be available to students with documented need. Please contact internationalcenter@tufts.edu for further information.
Grocery Store Shuttle
To make it easier to source food independently, Tufts offers free, dedicated shuttle service to a nearby grocery store once per week. Additional area grocery stores are accessible daily via the MBTA.