Normandale Community College Campus Cupboard Remains a Priority

As Normandale Community College moved to remote learning MAPE and other Normandale employees fully committed to keeping the on-campus food shelf, the Campus Cupboard, still open for students.  When all services were open on campus the food shelf had 200 student visits per week and had served over 1,100 unique students so for this academic year.  Over a third of Normandale students were food insecure prior to the COVID crisis (source: 2018 #RealCollege Survey by the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice at Temple University).  We knew that COVID would only increase this need.  We moved the food shelf into a new location so it would be more accessible for students and allow us to follow social distancing.  The food shelf is still open for students and is staffed by MAPE and AFSCME employees.  We’ve had about 15 students come weekly so far.  We adapted our model so students could get much more food per visit, to allow them to stock up on food as needed and limit their visits to campus.