BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — CSUB is seeing the demand with student the growth of students using their food pantry.
With that need comes expansions, offering students more access to meals during their academic career.
- CSUB Food Pantry and Basic Needs HUB will open a new space in spring 2025.
- The food pantry, which started in 2017, now serves around 800 students weekly.
- Food insecurity affects 40% of college students, impacting their academic performance.
- The new expansion will include Cal Fresh application assistance and emergency housing support.
.BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Yelitza Amadororozco, a first-generation double majoring in Biology and Women Gender Studies, was drawn to CSUB's campus as she commutes 30 minutes away from Arvin and tells me the last thing on her mind she wants to think about is being hungry in class.
Amadororozco she expresses, "You can feel so many things when you come to school, you can feel angry that you failed a test, you can feel sad that you can't find a parking spot. One thing I think a student should never feel is hungry."
Food insecurity is an issue at CSUB and state-wide as 40% of college students, Dr. Jason Watkins, director of CSUB's basic needs tells me.
Watkins explains, "For some that means reduced nutrition or lack of access to food. For other students that means actually having a missed meal. Aside from being a human issue, it really starts to impact students' academic well-being."
With the food pantry originally projected to serve 100 students a month, the demand went over 100 the first week.
Jason Watkins,"So we knew right then and there was a much bigger need but also an opportunity to really make a difference in the lives of students and so currently we serve 800 students, staff, and faculty every week."
And with that demand comes the new expansion allowing CSUB's basic needs department to offer students Cal Fresh application assistance, Emergency housing assistance, and more.
Amadororozco addresses,"An actual department and an actual building. I'm so happy that it's finally getting the attention and needed representation that it deserves especially because I've seen lines outside of it at all times of the day when it's open. This is something that students like me really needed."
Now students like Yelitza Amadororozco who understand the need can anticipate a bigger space in the future.
Amadororozco adds,"That students like me don't have to worry about where we're going to get our next meal, I can feel confident and assured that I can come to campus and I can, pass my classes, get my grades done and I can also get a nice meal at the food pantry and it's free. I don't have to worry about paying, I don't have to worry about what it's gonna cost me."
As students are having finals, CSUB food pantry is accepting donations for their students and anticipates opening the new expansion to the pantry in Spring of 2025.
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