Bill aims to make Massachusetts college campuses 'hunger-free'
One former client of The Open Door, a hunger relief agency on the North Shore, would buy a big bag of Rold Gold Pretzels on the days her schedule as a community college student didn’t allow for a food pantry visit, eating a third of the bag for each meal.
Another student would fill his backpack to the brim when he could borrow someone else’s account to access the dining hall, The Open Door advocacy director Sarah Grow told lawmakers Thursday. He’d freeze the haul to have meals for later but would worry about getting caught or that other students would catch a whiff of all the food in his bag.
“Living on a tight budget is not the same as having absolutely no food or making those pretzels last a whole day or stealing your roommate’s food or being afraid that your classmates will smell your backpack,” Grow said. “Please support the hunger-free campus initiative so that students can get back to the job of focusing on their education and not where their next meal is coming from.”
Grow was among a number of advocates to pitch the Higher Education Committee on legislation that would direct the Department of Higher Education to establish a Hunger-Free Campus Initiative and a corresponding grant program, and to dedicate an office to supporting the 29 public higher education campuses as they work to address their students’ food needs.
Read more: https://www.masslive.com/food/2021/10/bill-aims-to-make-massachusetts-college-campuses-hunger-free.html