Every year when Minnesota college campuses empty out for the winter break, some students stay behind.

Six of them met one recent afternoon in the lobby of Centennial Hall on the University of Minnesota's Twin Cities campus. They shared pizza, colored, and chatted about everything from their majors to their plans for surviving the next, cold semester.

"It can feel like nobody's here," said Jessica Tsadwa, assistant director of social justice and inclusion in the U's housing division. She organizes the social hours twice a week to help students feel less lonely.

It's difficult to calculate how many of the state's roughly 400,000 college and university students remain on campus during the winter break, but it happens at many schools. And some campuses are organizing programs in hopes that students won't go hungry or feel isolated.

Some students stay for the whole break. Some come and go. The reasons vary: Some are international students who can't travel home or who delay their flights to catch the best deals. Some have difficult family lives or lack stable housing. Others work nearby. And some simply find it convenient.

Carleton College, an hour south of the Twin Cities in Northfield, has one of the longest winter breaks, running six weeks. As the college recruited more international students and more students from low-income families, administrators saw that more people were choosing to stay on campus over the winter holidays.

"Our demographics had changed and our students' needs had changed," said Carolyn Livingston, vice president for student life and dean of students.

So about six years ago, the college launched a food pantry called the Carleton Cupboard. It began with dry goods like pasta and canned foods and has grown to include dairy products and fresh fruits and vegetables. If they time it right, students might find Girl Scout cookies donated by one of the faculty members.

Students use their ID to swipe in, and a light alerts others not to enter the room, so they can maintain some privacy. Carleton has also started providing pots and pans that students can take to their dormitories, and offering virtual cooking classes.

"There's a good bit that is offered over winter break," said Livingston, who said about 125 students typically stay each year.

Students at the U trudged through the snow Thursday to attend another social hour, drawn by the free sandwiches and the prospect of meeting other students on a nearly empty campus.

They gathered in small circles, eating and talking. On one couch sat Shridhar Vashishtha and Ninh Tran, two computer science students who found each other by chance. Both have been finding ways to stay busy, occasionally leaving to visit someone off campus or checking out an event downtown.

Vashishtha said he's attended winter break events in past years. "It's very important," he said. "You can meet a lot of people."

And, said Tran, it's a good way to network.

It was exactly the kind of meeting Tsadwa hoped the events would encourage. Her goal, she said in a recent interview, was to help students know they're not alone and to "help them try to build some relationships."