Mount Wachusett plans campus pantry to help needy - Sentinel & Enterprise

Student Emily Parmenter, left, and adviser Chrystal Voorheis fill up "bags of blessing" during the unveiling of plans to open a food pantry at Mount Wachusett Community College. SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE / ELIZABETH DOBBINS

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GARDNER -- Mount Wachusett Community College plans to open an on campus food pantry in mid-October in an effort to reduce food insecurity among students -- a phenomenon which organizers say appears to be widespread.

"We know nationally it's a problem, we know locally at other community colleges it's a problem and we've seen anecdotally here it's a problem," said Shelley Errington Nicholson, director of the Senator Stephen M. Brewer Center for Civic Learning and Community Engagement, an organization at the college.

Two out of three community college students nationwide are food insecure -- a measure of "the ability to secure food on a consistent basis in socially acceptable ways" -- Nicholson said.

With these numbers, she said the meal voucher program that was started at the college five years ago, didn't seem to be enough.

On Friday, the college launched a month-long drive for non-refrigerated foods to fill the new pantry, Food for Thought Campus Pantry, which will be located on the Gardner campus starting next month. Drop off boxes for donations will be placed throughout the college and in Room 152.

Students enrolled in at least one class can pick-up as many as 20 items a month from the pantry. Unlike many pantries, paperwork like proof of income is not required, according to Nicholson.

The pantry will be staffed by student volunteers and use donations from the Gardner Community Action Committee, on campus gardens and a $1,000 in start up funding from former State Sen.

Stephen Brewer.

Tammy Goodgion, who plans to graduate this spring with a double degree in business administration and human services, is among the students working to launch the pantry. Not too long ago, she was on the other side, she said.

"I was a person that was in need ... trying to make a decision over bus fare or feeding my son," she said.

Goodgion, an Orange resident, said she hopes the days of those hard decisions are behind her forever, but she knows of other students who are in similar positions.

"More than people think," she said.

"I remember that. The embarrassment of going to a food pantry and the hassle of filling out applications when going out to the food pantry is something most people can't grasp."

Nicholson said, while no formal study has been conducted at the college, she often sees the need.

Of the students who come into her office, "almost every student" is food insecure, she said.

"We would say, okay, when was the last time you ate something," Nicholson said. "I ate something two days ago or I ate crackers for breakfast yesterday. Especially students with families, they feed their kids first. They're going hungry."

Follow Elizabeth Dobbins on Twitter @DobbinsSentinel