Veronika Paprocka stands in front of a pantry of items neatly labelled in clear bins on shelves.

Take What You Need Closet Creates Belonging

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

By Rose Semenov

Rows of labeled bins containing items from granola bars to deodorant sit neatly organized on shelves inside a small room off the Maroon Lobby in Hanson Hall. In between classes, a student stops in to grab a bag of chips and another snack for the road.

That easy access is key to the mission of Minnesota Carlson’s Take What You Need Closet.

“The closet is conveying to our students that you do matter, you do belong,” says Wellbeing Coordinator Veronika Paprocka, who oversees the closet. “Even if you're just getting a granola bar, that was intentionally created in a way that would be a kind experience for you.”

Undergraduate Program staff members launched the closet in Fall 2023 as a resource for all Minnesota Carlson students. The closet provides free access to basic necessities — shelf-stable food and household goods, like laundry detergent — recognizing the financial constraints many students face. Over time, support from a Give to the Max Day campaign and a grant bolstered the closet’s inventory and led to a renovation, which added shelving to improve its functionality as a walk-in pantry.

Key Takeaways

Fostering Belonging: The Take What You Need Closet provides free food and hygiene items to 100 students daily.

Research-Driven: Wellbeing Coordinator Veronika Paprocka uses their PhD insights on space to design a welcoming pantry.

Hands-on Student Impact: Impact Lab students developed strategic recommendations to improve closet operations.

Dental hygiene products and dish detergent and sponges appear in neatly labeled bins in a pantry. — Bins containing household items in the Take What You Need Closet. Photo by Dan Gunderson

Now, thanks to increased funding through the Dean’s Excellence Fund and the Carlson Family Foundation, the closet is restocked 14 times a week and serves 100 students daily during the school year.

“We've always strived to make that space as nice as we can, so that it really helps our students feel that belonging and feel that care and have that space that is a place for them and something that can be really meaningful,” Paprocka said.

The power of place and space is a topic to which Paprocka is uniquely attuned. This May, Paprocka earned their PhD through the University of Minnesota’s College of Education and Human Development. Their dissertation explored how people who hold marginalized identities based on race, gender, sexuality and/or disability experience spatial belonging in the workplace. This academic lens guides the ethos behind the closet.

Veronika Paprocka in a graduation gown for her PhD — Veronika Paprocka earned their PhD in May 2026.

“All that work has informed how I understand the closet, how I approach that, how I make decisions about it,” said Paprocka. “Reading all that literature has really shaped what that looks like and how we make decisions in that space.”

Student-Driven Improvements

This spring, Paprocka served as a client for the Impact Lab in Action course, in which undergraduate students examine business challenges and develop insights and recommendations for a real-world partner. Eight student teams evaluated different ways to enhance the closet, including boosting awareness among students, improving the inventory supply chain, engaging with alumni for support, and more.

Noor Shalabi, a sophomore majoring in Accounting who commutes to Carlson for classes, says she uses the closet regularly for snacks. However, during her Impact Lab research, she was surprised to learn some students didn’t know it existed.

Three students behind a table with a posterboard talk with two people. — Impact Lab students hold a tabling session to raise awareness about the Take What You Need Closet. Photo: Pat Vasquez-Cunningham

“I want them to know that they can go to it whenever they need to, or if they feel like some things are not going well, that they need a resource and they don't need to tell anybody,” said Shalabi. “I know that can be a little bit hard to ask people for things, so they can just go and grab anything they need.”

Brooke Helmeke, a sophomore double-majoring in Accounting and Finance, says working on the project felt meaningful in building hands-on learning experience and in uplifting her Carlson community.

“It just makes me feel like the work that I'm doing actually matters,” said Helmeke. “The group projects that we do in other classes, we're just doing them to get a grade. But in Impact Lab, this matters to not only Carlson in our case, but to real people, and that feels so great.”

Paprocka credited the Impact Lab teams for bringing a fresh perspective, outlining ways to adapt the closet to refine its procedures and better fit students’ needs. For Paprocka, these improvements serve a much deeper purpose than simple efficiency.

“There's so much research that shows we do better at work, we do better at school when we belong and when we matter to others and to a community, that is so crucially important,” said Paprocka.

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