Home for the Holidays

Retriever Essentials, UMBC's food pantry, is excited to share that we are offering FREE Thanksgiving Meal Bags to community members in need. If you or your family are in need of Thanksgiving dinner items, please fill out this form by Monday, November 16th. The bags will include some easy-to-prepare, non-perishable, Thanksgiving meal items. The bags will be available for pickup at the 24-hour Campus Police Station between November 23rd and November 25th. *Please email retrieveressentials@umbc.edu if you have any questions or concerns, or if you cannot pick up your Thanksgiving Bag for any reason. We may be able to coordinate home delivery on a case-by-case basis*

The Home for the Holidays Food Drive will be running from Monday, November 9th to Friday, November 20th. If you are interested in supporting our community and would like to donate, we are accepting the following items:

• Canned yams

• Canned cranberry sauce 

• Stuffing 

• Boxed instant mashed potatoes

• Canned potatoes

• Canned or boxed instant gravy

• Coffee/Tea (please no Keurig cups)

• Hot Chocolate

• Apple Sauce

• Instant Pudding 

• Canned fruit

• Rice-or-roni

• Can openers 

• Self stable milks (soy, dairy)

• Travel-sized shampoo and conditioner & lotion

• Regular-sized shampoo and conditioner

• Vegetarian soups

• Chapstick

• Toilet paper

• Deodorant

• Jellies

We kindly ask that you donate only items from this list, as these are our highest priority needs.

We are also accepting $25-50 gift cards to support families' needs for perishable items (pies, butter, turkeys, eggs, vegetables, etc.) that unfortunately we cannot provide through the pantry.

Donations can be taken to the 24-hour UMBC Campus Police Station or delivered contactlessly via our Amazon Wishlist. Please use the following contact info and address when ordering through Amazon:

Deveraux Smith

Retriever Essentials

Sherman Hall 205

University of Maryland Baltimore County

Retriever Essentials would also like to invite you to our Home for the Holidays Virtual Community Dinner. This will take place on Thursday, December 3rd at 7 PM via Google Meet. Please RSVP on our myUMBC page.

We wish you a happy and safe holiday season,

The Retriever Essentials Team