DeJadonyea Council gets thankgiving turkey from Gateway’s new food pantry.
Twenty-five year old nursing student DeJadonyea Council cut the ribbon for a new food pantry at Gateway Community College then picked up a free frozen turkey and fixings to go with it for Thanksgiving.
That was the scene Tuesday morning at Gateway Community College as the public community college opened its first ever on-campus food pantry for its students known as the “Campus Cupboard.”
The idea for a pantry in the downtown college’s building on Church Street was first proposed by Interim Dean of Student Affairs Alese Mulvihill in 2019.
Mulvihill’s goal was to help decrease the number of Gateway students who often stop-out due to having to decide between paying for school or working full-time to support their families.
“The number of stop outs, if a student stops out the likelihood that they’re coming back is very unlikely so we want to prevent that,” Mulvihill said during the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Mulvihill and Interim CEO of Gateway Community College Scott Kalicki thanked the Gateway team for helping Mulvihill to get the pantry up and running this September.
A group of 35 Gateway staffers and students joined Tuesday’s celebration.
Inside Gateway's new student food pantry.
Start-up funding for the pantry was provided by federal grants and a $10,000 class gift to the school two years ago.
“Ever since we opened out doors in September we’ve seen the incredible impact that this food pantry has made on our students. Everyday they come into the pantry and tell us how grateful they are that this resource is here, it’s inside the school, and it’s just steps away from their classes,” Family Economic Security Program (FESP) Executive Assistant Melissa Lopez said.
In its first two months 70 students have visited the pantry.
In the past, Gateway has brought a monthly mobile pantry truck to the campus to provide students with food, though Mulvihill dreamed of one day having a on-site food pantry.
The pantry has a QR code outside of its door of room N209 for students to book appointments to shop for free food items. It is also stocked with a snack table because “who doesn’t get hungry when they’re shopping?” Mulvihill said.
Alese Mulvihill, Jayshelis Casillas, and DeJadonyea Council.
Third-year nursing student and New Haven native DeJadonyea Council described the pantry as “a lifeline for me during times of food insecurity,” a place where she’s received “unwavering emotional support.”
“Their kindness and compassion made me feel seen and heard. What sets them apart is that they always have my best interest in mind,” Council added.
Council, 25, said she recently got out of a domestic situation which has left her on her own for the first time ever and with inflated grocery prices she’s been trying to learn how to budget despite never being taught about it.
While she receives assistant from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as a diabetic she said her diet is very limited and hard to shop for with the food assistance restrictions.
Now that the food pantry has opened she said its been convenient for her to be able to shop for food after classes.
Registered students are allow to shop for ten items per month from several fridges and freezers and dozens of shelves of canned foods.
Most times Council has only her EBT balance to support her and her boyfriend, as she didn’t have a job and her boyfriend’s income was limited due to paying for their housing.
“The food here gets us an extra two weeks to figure it out,” she said.
She urged her fellow students to come to the pantry because the staff do not judge.
At Tuesday's celebration.
The college also hosted a turkey giveaway to its students Tuesday afternoon, with turkeys provided by Loaves and Fishes.
Students who signed up to receive a turkey also got a dozen sides including yams, stuffing, potatoes, and fresh fruits and vegetables as well.
Toiletries offered in pantry.
Third-semester Gateway student Jayshelis Casillas said Tuesday that “this pantry has been a weight off my family’s shoulders.”
Casillas is studying early childhood education and has visited the pantry over the past two months to help provide for her younger sister and mother and father.
When she arrives home with bags full of groceries from the pantry she tells her parents “you can wait a while to get more.”
Students cut pantry ribbon.
Food insecurity is a major issue for college students, especially in community colleges where most students are from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. I used to survive on ramen noodles, milk and cereal, tea bags/ice tea mix and apples and if I was lucky a chef salad as a special treat when I was a full time student and working full time in retail or childcare and attending Gateway and Southern. A food pantry would have been a huge support.