Catherine Shen
This is where we live. From Connecticut Public Radio. I'm Catherine Shen.
It's hard to learn when you're hungry, when you don't know where you’re getting your next meal. In 2020, nearly 4 million college students were facing food insecurity, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office.
Today, many universities are working to help. Several colleges in Connecticut now have food pantries and programs working to address hunger on campus, but addressing campus hunger goes beyond giving out canned goods. It's about students assessing quality foods and addressing the root causes of food insecurity.
Today we talk about what this looks like, but first, we want to hear from students directly.
Joining us now are two students from Southern Connecticut State University. Nelly Birmingham is a senior there, and Rakeria Thomas is a recent graduate about to start graduate studies at Southern. Nelly and Rackeria, welcome to the show.
Nelly Birmingham
Hi. How are you?
Catherine Shen
Doing great, of course. And for our listeners, let us know if you would like to share your own experiences. Are you a student facing food insecurity? Let us know. Where do you find help? 888-720-9677, or find us on Facebook and Twitter at Where We Live. So Nelly, I want to start with you here. How did you first get connected to the food pantry?
Nelly Birmingham
Well, my a little bit of my background story. How I got there was that due to ongoing circumstances, there were like a very emotional, harmful and destabilizing on my house. So I took the necessary steps to remove myself from that environment in an emergency. So, I got connected with the Support and Opportunity Center at school, and they provided me with so much. But yeah, I got connected that way.
Catherine Shen
And, I mean, there were, I imagine there's so many things going on at the time. You know…what was going through your head when you were going through that process and had to find a home and food among all that stress?
Nelly Birmingham
Well, as a Latina, asking for help has never been… doesn't come easy, right? So culturally, we are often think that we need to be strong. We need to survive on our own. So asking for help was very, very difficult. And a meeting that I was struggling was something that it shakes, it shakes the floor. It really you rather to be skipping meals or not thinking about it and say, okay, to survive today, I just gonna divide my rations. Ration it, yeah, and the food to go through the day. So yeah, it's fear, it’s pride is, is… find the courage to, to find help to, yeah.
Catherine Shen
Right, and there are so many different reasons and so many different experiences in terms of why somebody is at that point to need to ask for that help, right? And Rackeria, you have a different experience. You have been an active user of the food pantry as well. And you also interned there. Talk about what that has been like for you.
Rakeria Thomas
Yeah. So starting off at Southern in my freshman year, the spring semester, I gave birth to my son. I have a three year old. So, it was more so of trying to find a social balance, as well as a mom balance and then a school balance.
And within all of that, I had to figure out how I was gonna, you know, provide and sustain in society. And I was just chilling out in one of the offices on campus, and a student was talking about the food pantry. And I was like, food pantry? They're like, yeah, then, you know, we have a food pantry. So that's how I initially got started with the food pantry.
I was able…well blessed with the opportunity to intern for the among with, alongside the Dean of Students with the Student Affairs support and Opportunity Center, and we directly oversee the food pantry.
So that was an interesting time, because I was able to see the daily operations and what it takes to run a food pantry. So that was also interesting then in being a user as well, so…
Catherine Shen
Right, and it sounds like both of you, you have different reasons for going there, and it's not like you have to explain why, really, per se. But I think there's a theme here where it came as a surprise to both of you, that this was something that was available, and Rakeria, you kind of describe, describing having to step out of your comfort zone. Can you talk about what that's like, having to get out of that comfort zone to ask for help?
Rakeria Thomas
Yes, so stepping out of my comfort zone like so for me, me having a three year old at the time, age of 19, not being able or the I guess the stigma of not being able to provide or support another human being so young, I had to get over the fear of getting weird looks or not even where it looks just judgment of, you know, having to access these sort of certain resources.
So, stepping out of my comfort zone looked like me putting my pride aside and saying: Hey, I know I need to be sustainable. So my son is also stable. So I decided…I said…you know what? I said, it's okay. And you know what? What came from that was a lot of clarity, as well as I wasn't the only one, which is always something you do not think of when you're in a situation. You always think, oh, it's only me. And soon as you buckle down, I went, and when I was leaving, I will see my friends leaving, and they're like, Yeah, you know I'm going to the food pantry. And I'm like, okay, I want to go with you. So it just made me more inclined and excited to go. And especially the options when I got there was really well, so…
Catherine Shen
Right, and if, unless you took the first step, you never would have known, right, that this is something that, yeah, that's available to everyone. And turns out, a lot more people than I think we think, use this, this opportunity. And Nelly, you mentioned something similar as well, go for it.
Nelly Birmingham
So, yeah, reaching out at my school and walking into the food pantry took a lot of courage, like I said before, and just like you said, it was a lot of background stories, and you are not dealing just with the insecurity and what is going to be that when is going to be the next meal, but also reaching out school and recognizing that I needed help, and being like you said, I going to be homeless. So what I gonna do, buy food, buy products, or the only thing I can afford is going to McDonald's and get a $6 meal, right? So, and that should last for the entire day.
So reaching out to the food pantry provide me, not just with food, but they said, do you need forks, knives. Do you need a gift card that you can go to the local grocery and shop for something that makes you feel like you are look being looking after, you, being loved, you being seen and you they want you to succeed and being able to concentrate in the classes and graduation day, so that that really helps. It really changed. It changed my life. It was a turning point where, oh, I can trust people are there for me at advocating, right?
Catherine Shen
And it's amazing that you were able to find that support system and and Rakeria, as you sort of learned about how there's a massive process behind how food pantries work. Can you talk about, how does a food pantry work on campus?
Rakeria Thomas
Yeah, so at first, I think the big question is, what population are you serving, and thinking of all the cultural bases that go with it, as well as getting donations, having donors, and even just who's going to operate the food pantry, who's going to be there to make sure things go smoothly, and what rules are we going to set in place so that everybody has access to it.
So when I started, well, even when I first started going to the food pantry, I never really thought of like, when you're there, you're like, Okay, what do I need? And, like Nelly had said, it's not only just food that we offer. So we do have utensils, we do have forks, we have toothpaste, we have toothbrushes, deodorant, solutions. We have baby products. I remember I've went there, and I've got pet stuff for my pets.
So it's more so thinking of, what are you and who are you serving? You know, you don't just want to reach a basis and say, You know what? If you have milk and you have bread and you have cheese and you have some type of canned vegetables, you're good. It goes deeper than that. A lot of people, they if they can't afford to buy food for themselves, then what other things they cannot afford? And even… somebody want to say something, I'm sorry.
Catherine Shen
It's okay. Go for it. Finish your thought.
Rakeria Thomas
Oh, yeah. So just thinking about who you're serving, and then how are you going to serve them? Are the key components, and even with when we did mass grocery shopping hauls, thinking about, what are the things that people actually need, or what are foods that are going to last a long time? So instead of buying a box of frozen waffles, maybe we'll buy a box of pancake mix, because you get a longer use out of it. So.
Catherine Shen
Nelly? Did you want to respond to that as well?
Nelly Birmingham
Yeah, no. Adding to that, I feel building on that. I feel like they when you go there, you are afraid to be to be in judge, to all these stereotypes then you can bump into, right? So, being there and knowing that you are not going to get looks you are just going to get, “Oh, do you need something else?” So that kind of welcoming makes you feel better about that, that step forward then you have been taken.
Catherine Shen
I think the conversation or perspectives really change when people realize that it's more than just donating or grabbing a box of mac and cheese. It's more than just a literal food on the shelves. You know, I think I'm going to pose this question to both of you. Let's start with Nelly first. Here. Do you? Do you feel people are surprised when they hear about food insecurity amongst college students?
Nelly Birmingham
Wow, yes, when I start going to the food pantry, and I expressed that to my inner circle. I heard stories where even athletes, they are, they don't have access to that because they have to train, they have to go to school, and also they have to provide for themselves. So when they don't have the chance to go and look for a job, because they have to have these long journeys, right? So classmates, where mom and dad had been deported, and they want to finish school, and concentrating in on their Education and goals is a struggle.
So you get surprised where people then you see, “Oh my god, you? Really?” and you are like, I should be more supportive. You know, you never know what who is next to you. And keep supporting when we can the food pantries and seeing that, it goes further that just one can, like you said,
Catherine Shen
Right. And Rakeria, do you have experience where people are surprised when they hear that this is something that that exists amongst college students?
Rakeria Thomas
Yeah. So there's a hype around the fact that, since you go to college and there's meal plans and there's always places on campus for you to dine, that typically students at this age don't deal with these struggles, and I think that has a lot to do with the fact that a lot of that population could just be from commuter students. So if you are a commuter student, you're not necessarily sleeping here, you're not eating here. You know, you come for classes. And typically commuter students, they have like, little snacks in their bag. They pack a lunch.
So I do hear that it's like it's a shock to most people, and I just want to say that donating to food pantries, not only, you know, help the people who need it, but also bring awareness to multiple different demographics that have these issues.
Catherine Shen
And you're also an incoming graduate student. Does that change your perspective on that, or in terms of, there's an emphasis on needing to spread awareness that this is actually something that's available to your fellow undergrad and graduate students.
Rakeria Thomas
Yeah. So as a graduate student, I also still have access to the food pantry, and I think it makes more of an effect, especially coming from my standpoint of view. I can't speak for everybody, but I know that I also am a mom, and I am starting grad school, and the program that I'm in, it's shaped around working a full-time. So if you're working a full-time and you're going to school, and you know, not everybody is blessed to have a substantial financial aid package or somebody to pay for their college. So if a lot of their money is going to, you know, be able to sit in class and complete assignments, then what else are they? What is that money taken away from?
So even when undergrads–undergrads, they especially being so young, you don't necessarily know how to navigate these situations, and it's important that we do have systems implemented for them, just in case that you know what, I don't know where to go. I'm hungry and I can't afford food for myself. What do I do? So having staff around to say, hey, you know, come here and we'll figure it out for you is a blessing.
Catherine Shen
And Nelly with your own experience here too. What do you think might be the biggest thing you've learned about food insecurity and because of your own processes with this? Does it give you that urge or desire to help your fellow classmates and let them know that this is something that like it's okay to to go to a food pantry and grab what you need.
Nelly Birmingham
Yeah, absolutely, as a social work student, absolutely, that encouraged me to advocate and pass down the information, right, and tell people that it's okay to be vulnerable, it's okay to accept support, it's okay. That it doesn't make you weak.
Right? And I when I mentioned to many, many other of my classmates, or when we have time off and we share with others, I never miss the opportunity to let them know, because you never know you see people then maybe some say, “Oh, let's go to-to get a coffee.” And they said, “Oh, no, no, no, I will stay behind” and you're “No no!”. If we can, we all pull in and get everybody so identifying those things and being able to to put your eye and you need to help. You need to advocate, even doesn't have to be financially. It has to be just bringing supporting awareness.
Catherine Shen
And Rakeria, to finish off our conversation here, sort of building off what Nellie just shared. Have you had conversation with any of your peers about the food pantry? I mean, I know you have, but just to let them know that it's there and there's no shame in asking for help, and that to have that support system will be so helpful for everyone's academic career.
Rakeria Thomas
Yes. So, as recently stated, I did intern with the Student Affairs Support Opportunity Center, and my key role there was to do case management. So doing case management, I came across students who, you know, kind of brushed it off, saying, like, oh, you know, I'll like, you know, figure it out, or something like that.
And I try to tell them that the food pantry is always there. You know, you no fear of judgment. If you need to go, you need to go, especially as another strategy for students who aren't necessarily dealing with food insecurity, but are dealing with a bigger issue that could potentially affect their ability to sustain healthy foods. So I always told them I'm like, even if you know you don't think you need it right now, you go into the food pantry and getting basic items alleviates the stress of your grocery bill at the end of the week or the end of the month.
So extra money that you could have put to, that you would have put to food you can put to like, I don't know, your college bill or buying textbooks, but I've always encourage students to go and even my friends, like, even if you're not going in there, you know, you don't, you don't need a lot right now, even if you're just going in there, you know, “I don't have lunch for today, I'm going to go into the food pantry and see if there is something in there”. We normally have, like, microwavable meals and stuff like that. So always, always, always stress the fact that this food pantry is here for you, so if you're going to use it, use it. Because it's, it's, it's, a lot of people don't have access to stuff like this, so it's a good thing.
Catherine Shen
Well, thank you so much for sharing your story with us. You've been listening to Rakeria Thomas and Rakeria, I appreciate your time. Thank you. And you're also listening to Nelly Birmingham. Nelly, we also appreciate you sharing your experiences with us today.
Nelly Birmingham
Thank you so much. Catherine.
Catherine Shen
And coming up next, we hear from universities across the state about how they're addressing food insecurity on campus, and we want to hear from you let us know if food insecurity is something you experienced as a college student, and were you able to get help? 888-720-9677, or leave us a comment on Facebook and Twitter at Where We Live.
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Hear the full "Where We Live" episode: 1 in 5 college students face food insecurity: 2 Connecticut students tell their story
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