Campus food pantry helps students in desperate need of food
By Kayla McDowell
Special to The Ledger
You close your eyes as you try to focus your attention on the next question of the exam. You’ve studied all night for this, but you still can’t remember a single thing. All you can think about is how long you might have to go before you can get your next meal.
For some students, this situation hits very close to home. Currently, the college is taking steps to help those students.
Aurya Tekleab, a student at the college, said the food pantry has helped her when she has been desperate for food. She said that the pantry’s arrangement of soups, canned goods and pasta fulfilled her needs when she was without a job.
“I didn’t go hungry that night,” Tekleab said.
The college regularly serves students like this with the food pantry, which provides nonperishable items to those in need.
“What we started doing right away was trying to provide opportunities so that students get by,” said Brian Wright, the adviser for Model United Nations.
According to Wright, the pantry began as an event through Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE), along with a Campbell’s program. Although SIFE is no longer on campus, the food pantry lives on with the help of the Model UN.
“It gave Model UN an opportunity to be a little bit more visible on campus,” Wright said.
From what he can tell, Wright believes about 60 people take advantage of the pantry on a regular basis based on who signs in. The number could very well be higher because there is no monitor system for the pantry. Students are allowed to simply enter and take what they need.
“The whole idea is to try and keep it anonymous,” Wright said.
According to Wright, the food pantry partners up with other departments to make the experience for the attendees more helpful. Currently, the pantry works with the Nutrition Club as well as service-learning.
According to Mary Smith, service-learning counselor, the service-learning‘s contribution to the food pantry began in fall 2014.
“The pantry did not have enough items consistently, and it was an opportunity to involve the entire [college] community,” Smith said.
The service-learning’s helping hand to the food pantry includes creating awareness for the need for food as well as a system to publicize that need in order to receive donations.
With the help of the Nutrition Club, the pantry offers recipes based on the food that is available in the pantry, helping students create meals with the resources they are provided.
Despite the main goal for the pantry being sustainability, all of the efforts rely on the donations the pantry receives. Once having a budget to buy food, the pantry now depends on the food and money donations of the college’s faculty and students. That can easily pose a problem: Students can’t be fed if there is no food to give out.
“We try to keep it as full as possible, but we’re just limited by our donations,” Wright said. “If we’re empty, and people come in here and it’s empty, then they’d probably lose interest real quick.”
Food pantry drives begin in November, but the donations tend to fly off the shelves. The spring semester generally experiences an immense need for more donations.
The pantry is located in OCB 272 and is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. There are bins set up around campus, including the Student Center and the hallway in front of pantry for donations. Nonperishable protein items are always in the greatest need. For more information, visit Model UN’s website or email Brian Wright at bwright1@jccc.edu.