Food Pantry Opens on Campus

With the rising costs of everything in America - gas prices, fresh and prepared foods, clothing, and education - many college students find themselves applying to jobs, both full and part-time, while still enrolled in college.

    I myself was, at one point, working three jobs - two off-campus plus my federal work-study. With students overloading their schedules to the point where every minute of their daily lives are filled, many are faced with a new challenge: finding the time to eat. The cafeteria here on campus opens at 7:15AM for breakfast on a normal weekday, and is open until 7PM Monday through Thursday, 6PM on Friday. On the weekends, the cafeteria does not open until 10:30AM and closes at 5:30PM on Saturdays and 7PM on Sundays. While there are other dining options on campus that stay open later than the cafeteria, they don’t open until 5PM on the weekends, and for students living on-campus but working jobs off-campus, this posed a problem. A problem that Student Support Services and the Academic Success Center has provided a solution for: Concord University’s very own food pantry.

    “There was a survey conducted last year,” said Graduate student Michelle Laneave, “and 58% of percent of students saw a need for the food pantry, with 43% saying they had gone without food once or twice”. The food pantry opened at the beginning of this semester and is located in the Atrium of the Rahall Technology Center. Currently, since the food pantry is only just starting out, it is only open and available to Concord University students. Recently, the CU Foundation has set up an account where people can donate funds for use by the food pantry.

    “The need was greatest among working students who missed cafeteria hours, international students, and those without a car,” Laneave explained. With the Bluefield Area Transit having cut its weekend service, and more and more students finding it necessary to fill their free hours not spent in classes working on or off-campus, the founding of a food pantry here at Concord could not have been more timely.