Summer food drive is a big success
By Hannah Pasquarella
Special to the Knightly News
hannah.pasquarella@mymail.centralpenn.edu
Photo by Hannah Pasquarella
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 4 million college students struggle with food insecurity. Being a full-time college student can already cause stress, so adding financial burdens and other stressors creates a whole different environment.
I struggled with an eating disorder throughout periods of my life, and hearing about the struggles some college students face when it comes to getting a proper meal made my heart break. I would never wish for anyone to willingly skip a meal because they cannot afford it. My relationship with food will always be a struggle, but working with the Central Penn College Food Pantry helped me become more invested in the importance of a complete, nutritional meal.
When I was first introduced to the final project in COM420: Projects in Corporate Communications, I quickly became nervous because I felt I had nowhere to offer my skills. Being a commuter student made me feel like my options were limited, but that was far from the truth.
I learned about the Central Penn College Food Pantry through my professor and quickly contacted Lindsay Garber, director of student housing and residence life, to see where I could help the most.
My lack of knowledge of the Central Penn College Food Pantry made me consider that other students may not know about this resource. By promoting the Central Penn College Food Pantry, more students will learn about this resource and use it to their advantage. Not only are the students more aware of the food pantry, but the Central Penn College staff and surrounding community members are more aware of the resources available to its students and how they can help contribute.
The last thing a college student should worry about is what and when their next meal will be. The Central Penn College Food Pantry is there to help relieve those worries. After learning more about the food pantry, I realized that on-campus students are not the only ones who can access this resource. On-campus, commuting and fully online students at Central Penn College have full access to the food pantry.
When I first started collecting donations for the food pantry, I was so focused on the number of donations that I didn’t realize how many people I was feeding until the last few weeks of the food drive. Collecting the donations given to the food pantry and estimating how many people it would feed made me feel like the most powerful person in the world. In the end, the 236 items, which included canned and boxed nonperishable foods and toiletries, that I was able to collect will help stock the pantry for all of the incoming students in the fall, and that makes me proud.
Putting my efforts into something like this would have blown my mind a few years ago, but allowing myself to give help where it was needed and learning some critical things gave me a whole new perspective on life. This project was seen as a volunteer and community service event, but that was never the case for me. Helping other students going through the same things as I had help to develop a connection to the Central Penn College community. Being a commuter student is hard, especially when finding your purpose, and working with the College Food Pantry helped me find mine.
Editor’s note: This is the first in a series about Central Penn College students participating in philanthropic initiatives in the region as part of the COM420: Projects in Corporate Communication course.
To access the food pantry, fill out the form in Student Central or contact lindsaygarber@centralpenn.edu.
Comment or story idea? Contact KnightlyEditors@CentralPenn.Edu.
