Organization stocks shelves with over 500 items donated this month
By: CASSIE KIBENS
Production Manager
Tucked away on the side of the cafeteria, hidden behind unmarked doors, is the Brown Bag Cafe (BBC), STLCC-Meramec’s food pantry. Its shelves hold the fuel hungry students need in order to nourish their minds and stop the grumbles in their stomachs.
Over 700 students have been fed since late March. Some in need of a lunch once in a while, some in need of a lunch every day and some homeless and in need of much more. The BBC is a joint effort between Service Learning, TRIO, Student Government and Student Assistance Program and is currently open to Meramec students.
“I can’t imagine too many things worse than being hungry, and then you’re trying to succeed in classes,” English Professor, Pamela Garvey said. “No one should sit in class hungry.”
Garvey is one of the faculty members highly involved with BBC. She suggested the idea of having different departments at Meramec adopt the pantry each month. This month the English department is working with the BBC. The BBC is being adopted by the library in November and by the Music Department in December. The adopt-a-month program goes through May 2014. For Hunger Awareness month in October at Meramec the BBC is hosting various events with campus organizations.
“When you adopt someone you take good care of them,” Service Learning Coordinator, Debbie Corson said. “So if you adopt the pantry, you need to take good care of it.”
Corson works on the promotional side of the BBC. She hands out pledge cards to faculty and staff for the BBC and even enlists the help of graphic design classes to make the posters for various BBC sponsored events. Corson wanted to get involved with the BBC due to the enthusiasm of Debby Caby, a former Meramec student who cultivated the Brown Bag Cafe idea.
“We’ve been working with hunger for a long time on this campus so that was important to me,” Corson said. “Knowing that there are students that either really have one meal a day or maybe skip a whole day of eating, and have to make a choice between buying books or eating, it was a real eye-opener, especially knowing that there are so many students on our campus who are hungry.”
Garvey’s Composition 101 class put together and administered a hunger survey to poll Meramec students. The survey was then used to create a PowerPoint to better inform students about hunger on the Meramec campus, to reach out to those who might identify as hungry and to let students know how they can help through item or money donations.
“There’s lots of ways to make the connection between what we are doing and our academic coursework and the Brown Bag Cafe,” Garvey said. “It would be nice to see that happen more.”
Since the beginning of September, the English Department alone has collected more than 600 items and raised more than 200 dollars. The money raised goes to purchasing food through local grocery stores the BBC has established a relationship with, in order to get groceries at a discounted price. So far the BBC has made one trip this year to the grocery store in order stock the food pantry shelves.
“We want people to feel free to come up and take a bag,” said Doris Durgins-Johnson, Student Assistance Program Specialist. “But by the same token we have to be responsible with the resources and make sure they are allocated responsibly and fairly.”
Durgins-Johnson, much like Garvey and Corson, became involved with the BBC from the very beginning. Durgins-Johnson and Debora Jane Sears, her Assistant, oversee the process of putting together the brown-bag lunches and also compile intake forms for the repeat students. Durgins-Johnson believes that this helps to identify other areas of need in which a student might be suffering.
“We wouldn’t be here without the students,” Durgins-Johnson said. “If the students are having difficulty, I’m having difficulty. I mean when I see a student that’s having problems, I wish I was rich, I’d help them all.”
Students from various campus organizations want to help foster the growing BBC by volunteering to host food drives, helping to organize the donations and spreading the word about the BBC.
“The campus has needed something to bring our campus community together, and I think that this Brown Bag Cafe is doing that,” Corson said. “And hearing the support of so many professors that say to me ‘This is great, these are our students, I want to support our students.’”
