A new food pantry at Tacoma Community College highlights how difficult it can be for some students to afford school while still feeding themselves and, in many cases, their families.
It opened last week and has already served more than 50 students.
“It’s actually really helpful because I quit my job to start school. So, to kind of get by until my work-study starts, it is a great opportunity, and now I have something to power my brain,” said Kyesha Soto-Richmond, a student who visited for the first time Wednesday.
The idea for the pantry came from two TCC graduates, who researched campus hunger as part of a class project. Maylonnia Harris and Ashley Ngo surveyed a thousand classmates about food insecurity and were startled by the results.
The survey found 25 percent of students were not able to eat before attending class; 65 percent considered stopping their education to get a job so they could provide for themselves. And 60 percent of those surveyed skipped meals to make food and money last longer.
“They’re sleeping in their car, and you have no idea,” Ngo said.
Ngo and Harris helped launch the idea for a campus food bank before they graduated last year, and a steering committee made it a reality this fall.
The Max and Margi Harned Titan Food Pantry, named after a pair of donors, is open Mondays and Wednesdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Building 17 on campus. It is expected to serve up to 3,000 student visits each year.
For Harris, whose family relied on food pantries when she was younger, the campus pantry is a way to help others get to graduation.
“I started at TCC actually in 2011, but I kept leaving because I had a child, I had to pay rent, I had to buy food,” she said.
“It kind of broke my heart to see that other students are experiencing what I experienced, and I wanted to change that,” Harris said.
More info on the pantry here, including information about how to donate.
© 2018 KING
