Stephanie Wang

stephanie.wang@indystar.com

A new resource at Ivy Tech Community College will provide what many hope will help more students be successful:

The simple bare necessities.

A food pantry is opening this month in Ivy Tech's Illinois Fall Creek Center, supplying canned vegetables, pasta, paper goods and baby items to any student in need.

"If your belly is rumbling, I think you can't focus on school. You can't be the best you can be. You can't be the most productive," said Lillie Beasley, 29, vice president of Ivy Tech's student government and a pantry volunteer.

More and more universities are starting their own food banks to address hunger and food insecurity on campus. Last year, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis launched the student-run Paw's Pantry.

At Ivy Tech in particular, students tend to be older and many stretch their time and money between school, families and work. More than half qualify for federal financial aid for low-income students.

"By doing this," Beasley said, "it's going to help relieve a little bit of stress that a student might feel."

The new food pantry, called Bear Necessities after the school's mascot, will provide goods to any Ivy Tech student. Students do not need to meet any income standards, said student life and development director Anna Droste-Glowinski. Pantry workers will only verify that the student is currently enrolled at Ivy Tech.

"If you come, you have some kind of need," she said. "You never know what that student's situation is."

In a report this year, the national nonprofit food charity Feeding America found that more than 30 percent of its clients choose between food and education. Three million, or 10 percent, of its adult clients were students.

Ivy Tech's food pantry was inspired by IUPUI's, Droste-Glowinski said, after the administration and student government observed anecdotally that there would be a need for the service.

Students solicited donations of goods from the Ivy Tech community, grocery stores and local restaurants. The goal, she said, is to keep the food pantry self-sustaining through donations.

Some professors, she said, have agreed to award extra credit to students who donate to the food pantry or write a paper about it to help spread the word.

The Bear Necessities food pantry opens Sept. 15 in room 203 at Ivy Tech's Illinois Fall Creek Center, 2535 N. Capitol Ave. in Indianapolis. It will open 10 a.m. to noon Mondays and 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesdays. For more information on using the pantry or donating to it, email Anna Droste-Glowinski at adrosteglowinsk@ivytech.edu.

This year, IUPUI is also opening a Campus Kitchen, a student initiative that takes leftover food from dining halls to prepare about 100 meals a month for Wheeler Mission Ministries. The campus launched the program after winning a $5,000 grant from Campus Kitchens, which operates in colleges nationwide.

Call Star reporter Stephanie Wang at (317) 444-6184. Follow her on Twitter: @stephaniewang.