EPCC food pantry helps students, combats food insecurity

El Paso Community College students are working together to combat an alarming trend that is increasing among community college campuses across the nation.

For about five months, the Student Government Association has been running a food pantry open to all students who are food insecure at the Valle Verde campus located in El Paso’s Lower Valley.

The United States Department of Agriculture defines food insecuruty as the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.

The SGA president, Andrea Porras-Portillo said the idea of a food pantry got its start in a student leadership class.

“The students within the class saw that there was a problem within the college with students being food insecure in their homes,” Porras-Portillo said.

Since it opened in April, nearly two dozen students have been helped, some of them on multiple occasions.

Earlier this year, researchers at the University of Wisconsin found that one-third of community college students go hungry and 14 percent are homeless.

In the study, more than 33,000 students at 70 community colleges across the nation were surveyed.

Researchers said those numbers have increased since 2015.

Porras-Portillo said the pantry has helped individual students to students with large families.

“We don’t judge anyone, we just help anyone on a first come first serve basis. We try to ask the least amount of questions,” she said.

The pantry has collected an estimated 7,000 items that range from non-perishable food items to hygiene products and baby formula.

The only requirements are that students are enrolled in classes at EPCC and they have a student identification card.