WACO, Texas — With inflation continuing to be on the rise, food access can be quite difficult for college students.
Mclennan Community College (MCC) participates in a yearly student financial wellness survey hosted by Trellis Strategies. In the survey, they found that 50% of their students report food insecurity and 10% of their students report significant housing insecurity that would be considered homelessness.
Campus Resources Education Web Project Director Aranza Torres told 6 News how being food deprived can impact students in the classroom.
"If they haven't eaten or if they haven't had a safe place to rest their head at night or if they don't feel safe at home, that makes it harder for them to complete homework or just focus in school," Torres explained.
To help students get better access to food and household items, MCC has Paulanne's Pantry. It is available to all currently enrolled MCC and University Center students, faculty, and staff.
"This pantry has been open since 2012," Torres said. "We were blessed with a very generous donation and we're able to open the pantry and then each year we've seen it grow."
This year, Torres said they have already had to restock twice this year and over 100 students take advantage of the pantry.
"We don't just offer shelf stable food, but we're able to offer fresh vegetables, frozen meat, vegetarian and vegan options." Torres added.
"This year, we started expanding into hygiene and home good items like laundry detergent, dish soap, body wash, shampoo and conditioner.
Ahead of the holiday season, Torres told 6 News they're open to accepting donations from the community to better assist MCC students who need it most.
"We do work really hard to stash the pantry with holiday favorites," Torres added. "We're getting a lot of turkeys from the Central Texas Food Bank that we've purchased. We like to stock up those traditional things that we will see at the holiday table as much as we can."
The pantry has a number of partners that also help fill the pantry. Some include HEB, the Central Texas Food Bank, Fill the Pantry, and Shepherd's Heart.
The organization is open to donations to keep the pantry full. Here are some of the items they're needing:
- Personal Care Items: body wash, bar soap, shampoo/conditioner, lotion, razors, shaving cream deodorant, etc.
- Oral Hygiene items: toothbrush, toothpaste, mouthwash, floss, etc.
- Feminine hygiene items: pads, tampons, feminine wipes, feminine wash, etc.
- Baby hygiene items: diapers, wipes, baby lotion, diaper rash cream, baby wash, baby shampoo, kids wash, kids shampoo
- Older Adult items: adult diapers, bed pads/chucks, barrier cream, denture adhesive
- Household hygiene items: toilet tissue, paper towels, laundry pods, laundry detergent, bleach, fabric softener, cleaning spray, cleaning wipes, etc.
- Bottled water
- Baby/toddler food and snacks
- Shelf-stable milk
- Canned fruit (peaches, apples, etc.)
- Canned meat (chicken, tuna, etc.)
- Beans
- Canned vegetables (carrots, corn, mushrooms, etc.)
- Cereal
- Condiments
- Pasta
- Peanut butter
For anyone looking to make a donation, they can bring their donations to Success Coaching Services at any time during regular business hours.
For anyone wanting to make a financial donation, they can bring cash or a check (made payable to the "MCC Foundation" with "Paulanne's Pantry" in the memo line) to the MCC Foundation office or Success Coaching Services. Donations can also be made online through the MCC Marketplace.