This is a cross-published piece with Mustang News, more information can be found here.
ASI and Campus Health & Wellbeing launched a free grocery shuttle service earlier this month to transport students between campus and local grocery stores. The initial phase will run through week eight of this quarter and weeks one through eight next quarter.
The shuttle runs every Friday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., operating on three continuous loops. Each route stops at one or two on-campus locations and two or three off-campus grocery store locations. The routes are:
- Route 1: Performing Arts Center (PAC), University Union, Trader Joe’s and Food 4 Less
- Route 2: Performing Arts Center (PAC), University Union, Target, Whole Foods and Costco
- Route 3: Poly Canyon Village, Trader Joe’s and Food 4 Less
Peyton Kelly, ASI Board of Directors College of Liberal Arts Representative, and Weston Patrick, ASI Secretary of Community Relations, sent out a survey to Cal Poly students to collect data on which stores students wanted to visit the most.
“A lot of these conversations [from] last year began when we were approaching our HSI status at Cal Poly.” Kelly said. “We were thinking, ‘What are ways we can make resources more accessible to students, and what do students actually want?’”
The upcoming guaranteed two-year housing expansion and the cost of living on campus were also important factors in ASI’s decision to create a grocery shuttle service, Kelly said.
Peyton Kelly is a social media manager within Mustang Media Group but did not to avoid possible conflict of interest.
ASI President Marc Cabeliza made implementing a free grocery shuttle program for students a primary campaign goal. Alongside Cabeliza, ASI’s Chief of Staff Tanner Schinderle and the ASI Executive Cabinet partnered with Cal Poly Campus Health & Wellbeing to bring the project to fruition.
Schinderle and Jackson Martinez, the ASI Secretary of Accessibility, learned that Campus Health & Wellbeing set aside funding for a project like theirs. The two departments are collaborating with SLO Safe Ride, which operates Mustang Shuttle, to pilot the shuttle program.
Initial reactions
The shuttle program appears to be a success already, with the grocery shuttle’s second-ever route seeing moderate traffic. Many students who use the shuttles live on campus or do not have a car or other means of transportation to get to the grocery stores.
Dulce Perez, a graphic communication freshman, said she likes the way the project uses money from students’ mandatory ASI fees.
“It’s good to know it’s actually being used for something,” Perez said.
Jocelyn Vasquez, a biological sciences freshman, also said the shuttle program is easier than other transportation options around Cal Poly.
“The bus is kind of far from us, Vazquez said. “We would spend money on Ubers, and Zipcar is limited. It’s hard to book a Zipcar last minute.”
Schinderle said the rest of the 2025-26 school year will serve as a trial run and an observational period for the grocery shuttles.
“We’ll use the data we get on student usage to determine if there’s enough money or enough usage to make it last for next year,” Schinderle said.
This story is a collaborative project between many Mustang Media Group reporters: video by Lauren Quijano, audio by Giselle Espinoza, written by Sam Fickett. Sedona Harris and Parker Cinque contributed to the video portion of this story.
