Yara Khazneh and Samar Mohamed are trying to find all of their fellow students at Moraine Valley Community College who occasionally are forced by their circumstances to go hungry.
The two second-year students have been interning as peer educators in the college’s Project Care Food Pantry since spring and becoming part of a larger effort to stem food insecurity at the college. It’s a nationwide problem, affecting 41% of college students, with a majority attending two-year colleges, according to a survey by the Hope Center at Temple University in Philadelphia.
The pantry is coordinated by the college’s counselors but peer educators have played a vital role in helping to stock it, organize it and introducing students to it since it opened in 2015.
“We spread the word for the services we offer. We are looking for the students who are in need so we can help them further,” said Mohamed, who is working toward an associate’s degree in General Studies and plans to study marketing at St. Xavier College.
The two also have fostered special connections with their peers.
“We love students,” Khazneh said. “We show them around, try to kind of talk to them to see what they’re struggling with and what they need.”
Their next step is to meet with Jessica Contreras, the college’s director of Counseling and Holistic Support, to figure out how best to help, said Khazneh, who plans to study computer science at the University of Illinois Chicago after obtaining her degree at Moraine Valley.
The interns accompany students in the pantry, helping them find what they need, answering questions and helping them feel at ease.
“We’re trying to find ways to make sure this is a respectful and dignified experience for our students,” Contreras said.
The college in Palos Hills recently expanded its resources for students in need, including a larger pantry facility, with the help of a $70,000 grant from Northwestern Medicine, which operates the nearby Palos Hospital. The pantry area had been tucked away in the Academic Advisory Center but now is more easily accessible in the Counseling and Career Development Center, where students can get food but also other supportive services.
The Northwestern Medicine grant covered construction, equipment, supplies and marketing for the pantry, which relocated into an area that had been used as storage space. The pantry has more shelves now as well as several refrigerators with freezers. Along with nonperishable items, it makes available fresh produce, bread and tortillas and meat. There’s also room now for hygiene products and school supplies.
Teresa Hannon, a counselor and professor in Moraine Valley’s Counseling and Career Development Center, remembers a student who only filled her bag up halfway with food. When Hannon offered her more, the student said, “Oh no, leave that for other people.”
“Sometimes they’re in tears,” said Hannon, who has helped to coordinate the pantry since it started. “I can’t give them money, but I can help them feel like we care.”
Hannon said more students began using the pantry during the COVID-19 pandemic because so many families suffered a job loss.
“If you think about it, a student who goes to school without eating, their brain isn’t able to function,” she said. “I think the other piece is when a college supports their students, they feel better about their choice to come to college.
“There’s a sense of belonging when a college supports students. This is a basic need.”
The college had a ribbon cutting for the new Project Care Food Pantry just before Thanksgiving, and organizers plan to partner with the Greater Chicago Food Depository to open up the pantry to the wider community.
But for now it’s fulfilling an important role for the college community.
“The pantry is essential because food insecurity impacts so many of our students, compromising their ability to focus on their education and succeed academically,” said Kristy McGreal, executive director of the Moraine Valley Foundation. “This not only addresses immediate hunger but also promotes better nutrition and wellness, helping to prevent disease and support long-term health.”
Other south suburban colleges also offer pantries, including South Suburban College in South Holland and Governor State University in University Park.
Governor State University’s pantry opened in 2017, and this year it 300 turkeys with sides and desserts to college students and their families, according to Konya Sledge, director of the Center for Student Engagement and Intercultural Affairs, which runs the pantry with help from students participating in GSU’s work study program.
“The food pantry is a necessary resource on campus,” said Sledge, adding it “ensures they (students) receive the supplemental nutrition required to allow them to focus on academic success regardless of their financial situation.”
Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
