by Samantha McClain

On April 14, two NorthWest Arkansas Community College students attended the Hunger Summit at Heifer International Pavilion in Little Rock, Ark., to represent NorthWest Arkansas Community College food pantry. There, NWACC received a $1,000 check provided by the Garcia Family Fund, said Thanaisawan Hill, NWACC honor student.

“My main motivation for going to the Hunger Summit was to learn more about student food insecurity and how to improve our own NWACC food pantry,” Hill said. “There was so much information about solutions and problems to food insecurity, it would take hours to list them all. But now we have a lot of ideas to increase aware of food insecurity and our food pantry, lowering the stigma, and hopefully providing more support and food towards our food pantry,” he said. Hill was accompanied by Stephanie Palacios, also an NWACC honor student.

The NWACC food pantry uses plastic bags to carry food which often break when carrying large amounts, so they need stronger, eco-friendly bags, said Hill. In the past, the food pantry would use cardboard boxes and plastic Wal-Mart bags, said Cierra Collins, coordinator of Student Life said. The money will be used to buy better bags with the NWACC food pantry logo worked by the marketing team on the reusable bags.

“Another one of the largest problems” Hill said, “was that many students didn’t use the food pantry because of the stigma behind receiving from the food pantry or because they thought other students need it more,” he said. Students at the Hunger Summit discussed ways to receive food from the food pantry discreetly by placing food in a less public area or dropping the food to the recipient’s car.

Collins said she grew up using food pantries with her mom and admitted there is a reputation they provide unhealthy foods. She said the NWACC Food Pantry will provide fresh and healthy food as opposed to slightly expired or unhealthy foods.

“One of the largest problems identified was that most students didn’t even know about their college food pantries or how to access them,” Hill said.

“I believe anyone can benefit from the food pantry. Sometimes life gets hard and the last thing you want to worry about is going to the grocery store and getting food,” Collins said.

The NWACC food pantry is available for students, faculty and staff. At https://www.nwacc.edu/studentservices/healthandwellbeing/foodclothing.aspx, fill out a form to have access to the food bank. Two separate forms can be filled out. One form is for one-use only. The other may be filled out bi-weekly for regular distribution. The website also provides dates to pick up the food and when the forms need to be filled out, Collins said.