College preparing for food drive in Luzerne County
NANTICOKE, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — March is National Nutrition Month and Luzerne County Community College (LCCC) is getting ready for a large food drive on all their campuses. This drive is for students who might need assistance finding something to eat.
“In conjunction with National Nutrition Month, Luzerne County Community College decided that we’re gonna hold of campus-wide food drive,” said LCCC Wilkes-Barre Campus Director Adam Blannard.
Starting this Monday through March 22, each campus of the college will be collecting food donations from the community to fill the student food banks.
“Everyone’s encouraged, we had a good mix. Last time we did this in the fall, we had a lot of faculty staff bring in quite a few donations. The students did as well,” Blannard explained.
A recent study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health showed that food-insecure students were more than 40% less likely to graduate college.
The food collected will be stored in each of the campus’s food banks.
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When a student needs a bite, they can stop at the pantry closet and grab one throughout the day.
“We like to provide this opportunity to all students whether they have a food and insecurity or not, it could be a student who just forgot their lunch for the day and wanted to come in and say ‘I didn’t have dinner yet, can I go in and grab a snack or something to drink?’ We’ll let them in,” Blannard continued.
When the staff lock up the food bank each night they leave a basket of snacks out, so anybody who’s doing with food and security can come grab one
“I think it’ll be beneficial for students that especially that are here late that can’t get food or the cafeteria is closed,” said student Ryan Dunsmuir.
The staff will accept non-perishable foods, but there are fridges in each pantry to keep food fresh for a while, so if people want to bring fruit or vegetables, they are welcome to.
Past drives have been a success and the staff here are encouraging people to donate
“We held one of these last semesters, and it turned out pretty well between faculty, staff, and students so the more the merrier,” said Blannard.
The mission of the College’s Student Food Banks is to work to eliminate hunger and food insecurities among students and their families.
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