By Grace Ramsey
Las Positas’s students are in need of food. A cry for help shown from a survey done last semester by ASLPC that 112 out of the 210 students surveyed said, “that they or another student they knew didn’t have enough food for themselves.”
ASLPC (The Associated Students of Las Positas College) and calWORKs have been working since last semester to find a solution to the food shortage on Las Positas’s campus. The solution they have devised is the creation of a food pantry.
Food pantry’s are utilized all over the nation and are incredibly helpful to anyone who may come to need it. It distributes different types of food directly, given by local food banks, to anyone who may need it.
Las Positas’s food pantry, which is under the CalFresh program formerly food stamps, will be free to the public and LPC students. Uphie Ngwa, Director of Communications LPC student government said, “the pantry will be the style of a farmers market and modeled after our sister school, Chabot.”
It will have fresh fruits, veggies and other grocery items. You will be able to take what you need. Amanda Ingold, calWORKs coordinator stated, “ there will be a sign-in sheet, where you just answer a couple of questions, get what you need and be on your way. It should be a relatively painless process.”
CalWORKs is a program dedicated to students in need. Not just with food, but with money and other resources that students may come to need.
LPC paired up with Alameda County food bank for this project will be supplying the campus with all the grocery items for the food pantry. Ingold said, “The food being provided isn’t like dented cans or anything like that but actually fresh produce. Just because you need this food pantry doesn’t mean you are needy. It’s for everyone. There are a lot of students who are hungry.”
They are hoping to have a trial run this month. Ingold said, “there will be an opening day sometime this month to see how things go. Once the trial run happens they will know more of what to expect and how much food they are projected to need.”