The Kirkwood Community College Food Pantry is different from other college food pantries.
Located in Room 3038 Iowa Hall, it is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. According to Mialisa Wright, director of Student Equity, Inclusion, and Support, this makes Kirkwood’s food pantry unique.
“It’s the only college run pantry open fulltime and staffed that way,” she said. Wright added the University of Iowa food pantry hours are part-time Tuesday through Friday and it is run by students. Additionally, the food pantry at Mount Mercy is also part-time and run by students.
“We not only have one here on the main campus to supply but we also make sure the Iowa City Campus is supplied along with getting stuff over to the Auto Mechanics building and even to the new Aviation Maintenance Technology classes,” said Wright.
Students who made need food on any given week are encouraged to use the pantry. According to Samuel Carpenter, program specialist, “All currently enrolled Kirkwood students are invited to receive grocery items from the Student Food Pantry once a week at no cost. They also can just pop in to grab snack or something to drink without registering anytime.”
One Kirkwood student who uses the food pantry said, “I like that I can just stop by and grab something for breakfast or whatever and not have to sign in for it.”
Wright said, by allowing students to get items this way it helps erase the stigma about using the pantry. “We want whoever feels the need to stop by, don’t feel embarrassed by getting things from the pantry,” she said.
The food pantry receives supplies from various sources. Carpenter said, “We get most of our stuff from HACAP and I also get things donated from Hy-Vee directly to me. I pick up twice a week from them both on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”
He added, “In general, the need has been increasing a little bit.”
Kim Guardado, director for the Food Reservoir at Hawkeye Area Community Action Program (HACAP), said, “For clients like Kirkwood to pick up from HACAP they go to our website and fill out a form, and from that form we fill a pallet. When they come to pick up, they also can grab from the boxes marked ‘free’ to help fill up on things that may not be on the order form. HACAP gets a lot of donations from large manufacturers from around the area.”
For more information about the food pantry or to schedule an appointment, logon to www.kirkwood.edu/foodpantry.
Photographer
Categories: News
