(Butler, PA) A Butler County Community College food security program for low-income students will receive a $20,000 grant that will in part expand a 4½-year-old main campus Pioneer Pantry to BC3 additional locations in Armstrong, Butler, Jefferson and Lawrence counties.
The state Department of Education’s designation 17 months ago of BC3 as a Hunger-Free Campus qualified the college to seek associated grants from the agency.
Grants are intended to help campuses address food insecurity with measures that include enhancing access to food options, creating awareness initiatives and upgrading facilities, according to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration.
Mikayla Moretti, a member of the college’s food security team and the BC3 Education Foundation’s director of events, said the Pioneer Pantry in 2019-2020 served 341 credit and noncredit students and their families, or employees and their families.
The Pioneer Pantry served 838 in 2022-2023.
"Students are often food-insecure. They don't always know where their next meal is coming from. They don't always have a plan for how they are going to pay for their next meal."
- Dr. Josh Novak, BC3's dean of students, coordinator of college's food security team
A Butler County Community College student views canned foods in the Pioneer Pantry on BC3’s main campus in Butler Township on Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024. A BC3 food security program for low-income students will receive a $20,000 state grant that will in part expand the 4½-year-old Pioneer Pantry to BC3 additional locations in Armstrong, Butler, Jefferson and Lawrence counties.
“It’s challenging to see the numbers that high, that people have that need,” said Dr. Josh Novak, coordinator of BC3’s food security team and the college’s dean of students. “I think it also says a ton about what we’ve done to reduce stigma. The biggest barrier to students accessing the pantry is the cultural stigma of asking for help, needing help.
“Students are often food-insecure. They don’t always know where their next meal is coming from. They don’t always have a plan for how they are going to pay for their next meal. And that sometimes involves sacrifices to fill a gasoline tank and not necessarily eat quality food.”
The Pioneer Pantry provides canned, boxed and bagged foods, fresh vegetables, dairy products, frozen meats, products to seal and preserve food, and hygiene items for infants, Moretti said.
The college established additional locations to serve Pennsylvania counties underrepresented by higher education.
Grab-and-go stations at BC3’s additional locations followed the debut of the Pioneer Pantry and provide free dry, bagged or canned food to students.
"I think it is assumed that because we are in Cranberry Township that there are not those types of needs as prevalent as in other areas. But there really are."
- Dr. Ryan Kociela, director, BC3 @ Cranberry
Expansion to create “greater food security”
The college will apply approximately $4,000 of the grant toward purchasing refrigeration units to accommodate delivered fresh, cold and frozen foods to BC3 @ Cranberry, and to BC3 @ Armstrong, BC3 @ Brockway and BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing, Novak said.
“Sustainability of a pantry for the long haul at BC3 is a core service to our students,” Novak said, “and (the grant) helps us to create the momentum to make sure that is happening everywhere we serve students.”
The percentage of residents estimated to be in poverty in Armstrong, Butler, Jefferson and Lawrence counties, among sites of BC3 additional locations, ranges from 8.9 to 13.3 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges in 2022 reported that nearly 50 percent of the state’s community college students come from families earning less than $30,000 a year and are considered to be of very low income.
“I think it is assumed that because we are in Cranberry Township that there are not those types of needs as prevalent as in other areas,” said Dr. Ryan Kociela, director of BC3 @ Cranberry. “But there really are.”
It is “incredibly difficult” for a student who has a basic need to focus and concentrate on higher-level academic work, Kociela said.
Expansion of the Pioneer Pantry “will allow for greater food security beyond the basic snacks that we have been able to provide in the past.”
Meal-voucher program to debut
The Pioneer Pantry on BC3’s main campus in Butler Township was established in 2019 and followed a 2018 Wisconsin Lab Study survey in which 38 percent of 304 BC3 student respondents indicated they experienced low or very low food security.
Low food security is characterized by reduced quality, variety or desirability of diet, and very low food security, by multiple indications of disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
BC3 will allocate $4,500 of the grant toward funding an AmeriCorps volunteer to operate the Pioneer Pantry on BC3’s main campus 20 hours per week during the spring and fall semesters, Novak said.
The college will also apply $4,500 toward a new meal-voucher program for Pioneer Pantry patrons to use in the Pioneer Cafe on BC3’s main campus; $4,000 toward food purchases; $2,500 toward marketing to create awareness and $500 toward an internal staffing stipend, Novak said.
BC3 is one of 30 institutions of higher education and private licensed schools to share $1 million in grants to be distributed this month, according to Shapiro’s administration.
The inaugural Hunger-Free Campus designation in September 2022 recognized 28 institutions of higher education in Pennsylvania that took measures to address student hunger, according to former Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration.
The Pioneer Pantry on BC3’s main campus is open during the spring semester from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays through May 2. It is located in Room 100 of the college’s arts and hospitality building.