As People deal with inflation, a campus service at Bowie State College helps college students stretch their {dollars} and get some peace of thoughts.
Bowie State helps tackle the rising value of meals and provides by means of its “vitamin lounge,” a free-of-charge facility stocked with necessities from grab-and-go snacks and meal staples to home items and private hygiene merchandise.
The Maryland college opened the lounge in 2020 to assist fight meals insecurity on campus. It has morphed right into a full-on pantry for college students and workers.
Bowie State sophomore Luchas Wright, III is among the many rising variety of college students who’ve come to depend on the lounge.
“Everybody has to discover a methods to a way, however it’s a blessing to have alternatives like this on the school,” Wright mentioned. “The stress simply is not there. It is like, ‘alright, at present I am gonna get some meals right here.'”
Simply as inflation prices have risen in latest months, the variety of guests to the vitamin lounge have too.
Campus well being educator Shanelle O’Connor mentioned she seen the change.
“In comparison with final yr, the numbers have elevated. An increasing number of college students are coming in, and typically you see the identical college students coming in.”
A flip by means of the vitamin lounge logs reveals simply how very important this service is for these struggling to make ends meet. A median of 615 college students and workers got here to the lounge final October and November. In February alone, the lounge had served over 800 folks.
For college kids like junior Pleasure Ezinneh, the lounge gives one much less factor to fret about in lean instances. “It is truthfully the best peace of thoughts realizing that, OK, if I haven’t got one thing, I can come right here.”