A university helps students struggling with food insecurity receive groceries
By Joe Ripley
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ATLANTA (WXIA) — Graduation inches closer for Michelina Schach, a senior at Emory University. Schach works in campus dining, surrounded by food. But she often spends more time calculating grocery costs and making meals last longer than on her schoolwork.
“There’s so much food on this campus, but sometimes it feels like it’s behind a very thick paywall,” Schach said. “Working on my school work, making more money, other avenues of life that sort of get obscured by the need to just figure out how I’m going to feed myself reliably this week.”
Schach is one of several students facing food insecurity, not knowing where their next nutritious meal might come from.
“It can be a very big source of anxiety for me,” Schach said. “It’s a lot of being resourceful a lot of the time. There’s this added element of knowing that these are such finite resources, and it makes you question if I need this enough. Who needs this more than I do? I know I need to meet my own needs, but there are so many other people dependent on these same finite resources.”
Liz Carlino, assistant director of campus dining with Emory University, leads the community fridge and pantry, some students’ main source of protein and produce.
“It’s private, it’s anonymous, anyone who needs it,” Carlino said. “There’s no policing, no restrictions. I fill it up and it is empty within an hour or two. The need is much greater than the resources right now.”
Carlino said the venture was inspired by the Free 99 fridges that popped up around Atlanta during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said there were some programs designed to help hungry students on campus, but they weren’t a catch-all. Pantry funding and operations do not fall into the university’s budget.
“Costs everywhere have increased, and unfortunately that applies to food as well,” Carlino said. “Quite a lot of our students experience food insecurity, and staff as well. We’re relying solely on donations and food recovered on campus, and the amount of students needing assistance and support just keeps increasing year after year. We’re probably doubling our output each year.”
Dana Lyles, director of multiethnic ministries with Global Ministries, emphasized that the need to address hunger on college campuses was growing. Global Ministries is an outreach of the United Methodist Church. The outreach is offering grants to its affiliated schools that have fewer than 1500 students to address hygiene and food insecurity.
Lyles said colleges are burdened with financial cuts across the board, and many have modified dining plans which can make finding a meal more difficult for students.
“The reality is the need for food remains the same,” Lyles said. “Students are receiving less in scholarship funding, less in financial aid, but the cost of living is increasing whether it’s for books, apartments and even food. We’ve committed over $1 million in various grants in various capacities across the United States to attend to food insecurity.”
As Michelina Schach counts down the days to graduation, she’s counting her blessings, grateful for resources anywhere she can find them.
“Because the pantry doesn’t have institutional, reliable funding, I try not to depend on it a lot, because I know the reality that a lot of Emory students and staff are in more dire need than I am,” Schach said. “Having healthy, nutritious foods available to people who are food insecure is so important because it reinstates that sense of dignity and that I’m deserving of adequate nutrition.”
Schach said she planned to eventually learn how to grow her own food. She ultimately wants to work in environmental science and global health culture. Meantime, Emory continues to rely on donations to help other students in need. The college is applying for grants for more long-term assistance.
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