UC Irvine Basic Needs Center: Addressing Student Food Insecurity with Digital Grocery Cards

"The grocery card is a great solution for those who can't access our on-campus pantries due to conflicts with work or class schedules. It's more accessible for them to receive an iQpay grocery card."

Andrea Mora

UC Irvine Basic Needs Center

The UC Irvine Basic Needs Center addresses food and housing insecurity for students across campus. The Center serves a substantial portion of UCI's student population—43% of undergraduates (13,500 students) and 37% of graduate students (2,500 students)—through multiple complementary programs including meal swipes, a campus food pantry, CalFresh enrollment support, and their iQpay-supported grocery card program.

The Center's work is part of a broader evolution in California higher education. Over a decade ago, only 2 UC campuses had food security programs. In 2018, California took a transformative step when the state began funding basic needs programs across UC, CSU, and community college systems. Today, under permanent state funding, California allocates over $70M annually for basic needs programming at public colleges and universities.

The Problem

The Center launched its grocery card program in 2020 at the peak of the pandemic to offer additional support to those who couldn't access on-campus pantries. Initially, they worked directly with retailers to purchase bulk e-gift cards and distribution codes, but the manual process was extremely cumbersome. Staff had to purchase cards in bulk, pay for the full value of the cards regardless of redemption, track distribution manually, and had limited visibility into card usage. As demand grew, the administrative burden became unsustainable.

The Center needed a digital solution that could centralize student records, automate distribution, and provide real-time visibility into program utilization—all while maintaining the dignity, accessibility, and choice that make grocery cards effective.

The Solution

UC Irvine and iQpay partnered in 2024 to build a digital card restricted only to grocery products that would reduce time spent on manual processes, reduce lost or wasted funds on gift card breakage, and improve student satisfaction. The iQpay platform additionally serves as a student management tool for the UCI Basic Needs Center team, giving them a single platform for tracking who has received what support and when.

"The platform is really helpful because I can see if a student has been awarded a benefit, used their benefit, and if they have a remaining balance."

Anne-Marie Krumrei

Basic Needs Coordinator at UCI

Once students screen as eligible for the benefit, staff upload the student's information to the iQpay portal and select the type and value of the grocery card they are seeking to send. Students receive a text or email from the iQpay system with the link to their digital card, which they can access on their phones or print.

Students then select where they would like to shop from a dropdown on the card experience, take the digital wallet into the store, and shop for the products allowed by the restricted card. Balances update in real time, and iQpay customer support offers immediate assistance if students have questions about using their cards.

The Result

The UC Irvine and iQpay partnership has transformed how the Basic Needs Center's gift card program operates. Staff now have complete visibility into student benefits, active cards, and remaining balances—all from a single dashboard. The platform eliminated the manual work of purchasing and distributing bulk gift cards, freeing staff to focus on student engagement and eligibility support.

In the last year alone, UC Irvine has delivered over 750 cards to students, demonstrating the program's significant reach and impact. The grocery card program is now one of five core programs the Center operates. The partnership demonstrates how the right technology can help basic needs centers efficiently scale operations to meet growing demand while maintaining the personal, student-centered approach that makes these programs effective.