MONICA MANNEY
Special to The Leader
At this point in the semester, you may be checking your FREDCard to make sure you have enough points to eat for the week. As embarrassing as it may seem, you’re not alone.
Food insecurity, or the lack of access to resources to obtain nutritious food, is a concern recently being highlighted and explored on college campuses all over the country.
“It is hard to concentrate when you are hungry or worrying about where your next meal is going to come from,” says Fredonia’s website, “Unfortunately, we found this to be true for our own students.”
Fredonia’s website includes information on local food pantries, meal plans and tips for keeping on track with points throughout the entire semester.
After speaking with students on campus, we found that food insecurity was, in fact, a problem, but students were unaware of the availability of free food products on campus.
Last year, when the Health Hut tweeted about the food pantry in the Williams Center, next to Tim Hortons, the tweet got over 130 retweets and replies. It also got recognition from University at Buffalo’s law school and Fredonia’s Vice President of Student Affairs, Cedric Howard.
The majority of the replies, though, were students pointing other students to the pantry as a resource.
“Retweet to save a student who’s low on points,” replied Fredonia student Dillon Eliot.
“This is awesome. Both healthy and free food for those who may be low on meal plan,” tweeted Andrew Kuczkowski.
With two on-campus food pantries and multiple resources around Fredonia and Dunkirk, Fredonia is working to crest a student-ready campus.
For students looking for food items, they can be found in the lobby of LoGrasso Hall, as well as a limited pantry at the Health Hut on Tuesdays from noon to 3:30 p.m.
If students are unable to get food during this time, they are encouraged to send an email to health.center@fredonia.edu for help outside of the pantry hours.