CSN Subject Matter: Food Pantries
Air date: Sunday, February 2, 2020


Welcome to this week’s edition of CSN Subject Matter, the College of Southern Nevada’s weekly radio program in conjunction with KNPR. I’m your host, Meghin Delaney, from CSN’s communications office. CSN is Nevada's largest and most diverse higher education institution so naturally we have plenty of great stories to share.


Today will be talking about the new Coyote Cupboards. These are food pantries on each of our campuses, they are overseen by Student Life and Leadership Development with cooperation from student government. I have with me Brian Akins, who's going to tell us a little bit more about this program.


As always you can learn more about CSN by visiting csn.edu, we look forward to helping you succeed.


Now I'm going to turn it over to Brian to introduce himself and tell us a little bit more about these Coyote Cupboards.


Brian: Sure, my name is Brian Akins, I am the director of student life and leadership development here at the College of Southern Nevada and I am directly responsible for the Coyote Cupboards, which are our campus food pantries and we could not have the Coyote Cupboards successfully without the grant that I authored, or co-authored, in which each campus was awarded $100,000 toward the Coyote Cupboard, that was funded via the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. We were awarded a grant via Governor Sisolak’s office titled the STEM and Innovation Grant in which side we were awarded funding towards the Coyote Cupboard startup as well.


Meghin: So we’ve got these Coyote Cupboards on each of our campuses, they’re grant-funded, I know we’re working to make them not so reliant on grant in the future, we’re trying to work with getting that fundraising up and going, but I wanted to sort of backup and pull back a little bit, because I know this and you know this, but can you talk about why we needed these pantries on campus?


Brian: Definitely, the research has shown that many of our CSN students withdraw and discontinue being CSN students due to food insecurity is one of the reasons and what our research showed was that we have a large portion of our students who feel like they do not have enough to eat.


We have a large portion of students who who are skipping meals, we have a large portion of our student body who have meals but they feel like they don't have enough, like they feel that they don't have a balanced meal, a nutritionally balanced meal, you can't live off of you know the 12 for $1 ramen noodles for rest of your life and things of that sort.


Meghin: Yeah, it’s going to wreck your body.


Brian: Exactly, you need some vegetables and fruits and proteins and things of that sort. And what we found was that our students and feel like they don't have enough of what they need, and as you know, that can affect your study habits, your brain functioning at a maximum capacity, because you know, you don't have those nutrients and so we saw that such a large number of our students were affected by this that we said, you know what hey, as a new student unions are being built, let's fuse in a food pantry so that we can assist our students.


Meghin: And I think that’s great. We opened our student unions in 2019, these beautiful, gorgeous student unions on each campus and these food pantries are right there. So this is where we want our students to congregate, we want them to come to campus,we want them to sit and study and hang and if they need it, that resource is right there for them.


Brian: That is correct, it’s right in the Student Union, right next to the student government desk and you can't miss it, but then also in our food pantries, we not only serve food, we also have toiletries, we have women's hygiene products, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo and conditioners, deodorant, men and women's deodorant, we have detergent, so the food pantries help with more than just food. 


Meghin: You talked about it too, but our students who are food insecure probably also need some of these hygiene products, we’re helping them on a more holistic level with the aim to keep them in school and to prevent them from dropping out and leaving before they finish a degree because we know that degree is it a big pathway to their future. You brought some lovely, wonderful, amazing students with you today. So you know these students are on the front line, they see from there other students with some other needs are, so I'm going to have them introduce themselves here, talk a little bit about themselves and sort of their role in student government and life at CSN, so Dan the man, would you mind going first, would you introduce yourself and then talk a little bit about yourself?


Dan: Sure, my name is Dan, Daniel Gutiereez, I am the student body president for all three campuses. Right now, I'm studying business, I finished an associate of business last year, right now I'm finishing a certificate of business management, I’m about two classes away so I'll be finishing this semester. One of the reasons that I decided to run for the office of student body president was because I did see a lot of my fellow students out there, a lot of issues that they either didn't know how to handle, they didn't know how to deal with, and that information wasn't readily accessible to them, or if it was, they weren't aware of how to get there. 


I've always been a people person, ever since I started at the college, I started as a student worker and I would help a lot of students who were in the tutoring services. I was work study under the director of the tutoring services and afterwards I started at student government as a senator, and made a lot of not just friends but also a really good partners along the way, and that where I saw a lot of the issues that happened with students, a lot of the scenarios, and a lot of the the things, you know, just just real life that happens to affect everybody.


Manuel: So my name is Manuel Ayala, I’m the student body vice president, my role specifically is to organize clubs and organizations within the CSN for all our campuses and our extension sites. To piggyback off like kind of why I joined student government so I am a political science major and I've been community organizing for the past four years now, I've actually been doing community activism as well, as specifically organizing campuses, I was a political organizer on CSN Henderson campus in ‘16 and that was before I even came to CSN and I came to CSN because, you know, I saw this awesome opportunity for like student activity and community that I really just wanted to be a part of.


Because I am a political science major, I love all this like structure that exists within CSN, how our student government kind of works, student organizations and clubs on campus and having that experience to put them within the community, I just love everything about it. I genuinely like going to these meetings that we have.


Meghin: And one last introduction and then we'll dive in and talk about the Coyote Cupboards, so last but not least would you mind introducing yourself?


Nick: Hi everybody and I don't know how to follow such a great introduction by Manny, but my name is Nick, Nicola Velimirovich, I study English here at the College of Southern Nevada and I hope to one day go to law school. 


The reason I joined student government was like everybody else here, I'm a people person, I like to get to know people and I figured this was a great way for me to help the community, while also breaking out of my shell and becoming something greater.


Meghin: I know we’ve had some really good numbers of students who have used the cupboards already, but generally what did you see this fall semester in terms of usage of these cupboards?


Brian: It was dynamic to see the usage of these cupboards. It was not uncommon for students, well a couple things, we partnered with Three Square to give bags of food that are 15 to 20 pounds. In those bags, you can create three to four sometimes even five meals for you to take home for your family, but then we also had more of the grab-and-go items, some of those items that are nutritious, that kind of can power you throughout the day, and so we saw lots of students utilizing that.


Meghin: So that’s things like protein bars to give them that fast join of sustainable energy.  


Birian: That’s correct, we had items such a protein bars, soups, at some of the campuses, we have some of the shelf life milk which is mainly sold in stores, I know in Europe it’s very popular, so we have students who utilize that for their cereal and we have a lot of great options for our students.


Meghin: Great and I know that the students we have here as part of their duties with student government, you would occasionally sit and man the office and you would see the students who were coming and you would assist them in giving them these items, so what were some insights that you gleaned this semester from watching students come in and grab and grab and go?


Dan: Sometimes I see that some students might live in a food deserts, that's a thing that happens.


Meghin: So if folks aren’t familiar, a food desert means they’re living in an area where they don’t have a grocery story in a certain radius, there's an actual definition of a food desert and that means that they don't have access to that healthy food, that fresh produce nearby, they might have that 7/11 or that gas station, and those really don't count because that's not enough, so we're seeing students talk about you know living in those food deserts.


Dan: So being a food desert, it's your likelihood of you being, you know, unhealthy, living an unhealthy life, eating unhealthy, being obese, health complications of the sort, the likelihood increases and a lot of that has to do with if people can keep up a regular and balanced diet and like our advisor Brian Akins said, when the students have that covered and they're able to go in and even if they're getting a nutri-grai, but when they're getting a nutri-grain or something like that, and they're they're pairing it up with the snacks, healthy snacks, something with fiber, the fruit snacks, the dried fruit, anything like that, it ends up contributing a lot to that meal throughout the day and it helps them try to maintain that balance even if it is for that lunch period, it helps keep that steady bounce of food, so that they don't get home and they're super hungry, and they just gorge on whatever is there, or stop by somewhere and get 2 for $3 deal or something like that every single day, that adds up.


Meghin: Yeah, those should be for special occasions, treat, not how you sustain your life. Manny and Nick, did you guys see similar things?


Manny: Something that I noticed a lot because I work on the Cheyenne Campus mostly, we see a large homeless population and a lot of people don’t talk about it and we have seen students coming to the food pantry and that's kind of where they get their food, and that takes a burden off of students, when they’re already trying to pay tuition and they’re trying to find places to sleep or find  adequate shelter, food, sometimes, it's the last thing on people's minds and the fact that we are able to kind of have that food pantries there, more students can grab food and everything, I have just seen the relief for all these students, and that kind of feedback, whether it's not like this verbal feedback that people say thank you, we don’t need a thank you, we’re seeing people actually being able to eat and attending school more. There are some homeless students that come to us that we know very personally and systemically they would not have lasted as long as they did at CSN, but because of the resources and the kind of the extra steps that we  have pushed to make sure that they have those resources, they are on the way to finishing their semesters and it's fantastic.


Meghin: Yeah, it can make or break the difference for a student. And Brian, we’ve talked about this too, they studies around this, when we talk about this and when the students working these food pantries see it, I mean there's a lot of science to back this up in a lot of studies, we studied our own CSN students and it goes along with you know national, recognized studies that these students need food or they're not going to succeed in the classroom, and I think one of the exciting things about CSN, is we are doing a lot to make sure that those barriers aren't in place for these students. I know we also have, I love to talk about the emergency fund that you help oversee as well, so can you remind folks of what that is and how that sort of fits in the conversation we're having here?


Brian: Sure ,definitely, the student emergency fund was also something that was birthed out of Governor Sisolak’s office and the STEM and Innovation Grant and so what we are able to do is award $250, up to $250, to students who have emergencies that come up through the semester. So, you know, life happens, and when it happens, you know, many people don't have you know an emergency fund, especially students, many students don’t have an emergency fund, so we’re able to help out up to $250. It’s myself and four other members of the CSN staff and faculty that are part of a committee that process the applications and what the students will do is that they will also submit some type of proof, whether it be a car bill that they just cannot afford to pay, or eviction notices, we've seen overdrawn checking accounts and things of that sort, and so we're able to help with that as well.


Meghin: Yeah, and it’s sort of all in service of putting our students first to make sure that they can be students and focus on their class work and their coursework and you know as our President Dr. Z likes to say graduate, complete, transfer and prosper, that's what we want at the end of the line for our students, so I always love to bring that one up as a way that we help our students. The Coyote Cupboards are another exceptional way and one of the things I love about the cupboards is that you know not only have the students got involved, they are sitting at the desk there handing out the food as students come up, but you got these advisory committees, there's one on each campus, it's got students and staff and they're sort of leading the direction of of what each campus needs specifically in their cupboards, so we have to talk a little bit more about the role of those advisory committee, Brian?


Brian: Sure, the Coyote Cupboard student and staff advisory, what they do is they take ownership and do the homework at their separate campuses. For example, at the Henderson campus, we saw that many of the students were not utilizing the 15 to 20 pound bags of food. But we did see that the students there utilize the grab-and-go items and so what the Coyote Cupboard student staff advisory committee said hey when it comes to replenish, let's not utilize the 15 pound bags of food as mucha s we utilize the cereal, the soups, the noodles, the nutrigrain bars and dried fruit of that sort. 


Then also with the advisory committees do is they see whatever else the students are needing. So for example, at Henderson campus what our team saw was that there was a larger portion of our females that were lacking hygiene products so they had a hygiene product drive.


At the Charleston campus we saw a lot of their students that had a child or were taking care of a child, so they have a drive specifically for baby products. And so those committees are the ones at the forefront, championing their campuses and getting out there and doing some of the grass roots research on what I can't put their campuses need.


Meghin: And I know the North Las Vegas campus did a men’s hygiene drive, I remember I really liked flyer. This is CSN Subject Matter, the College of Southern Nevada’s weekly radio program in conjunction with KNPR. Today we've been talking about the food pantries on each of our campuses. I did want to transition and talk a little bit more generally about some of the other things that Student Government provides for our students, some of the initiatives that are going on in the spring semester, all the different stuff that we're doing, so maybe Dan the man, fearless leader, do you want to kick it off this the side of the conversation and talk a little bit about some of the other things that student government does?


Dan: So some of the initiatives, one of the biggest ones so far and I just want to give a big shoutout to this initiative, is we are trying to.. One of our goals for this year is to create traditions that are recurring and that get bigger, that grow and that become true staples to the college and not just for the students, but for people in the community, and they can gather interest from the community.


One of the initiatives that we took for the semester is a speaker initiative, we have a speaker's program that we’re trying to get off the ground and we're just trying to bring leaders and industry members of the community, people with life experiences, anything like that, and kind of open the horizon, expand the horizons of students, so they can see that there's multiple stories to life, that if somebody's going through the same issues that you know somebody else has been there too. 


The one that we have planned for this semester, we have invited, we are having Mr. Raymond Santana, he was one of the Central Park Five. For those of you who don't know about this case, in the late 80s, five young African-American and Latino men from the New York area were falsely accused of assault on a woman, and, you know, the case was very big, a lot of key players, a lot of a big people were involved, and, you know, it just wrecked the lives of these five gentlemen and the story of Raymond Santana is a very, very inspiring one because he went to jail, he was in prison for a time, and he was able to make it out, I believe he went to school, graduated and it's one of those stories that shows that if you been falsely accused or even if you haven't, if you may have not made the best decisions in life, you have a chance to make something of yourself in this life and it really is inspiring to students, considering that CSN does have a prison education program, we want to show to that group of students and also to minority students, to majority students, to all students that you know it doesn't matter what background you come from, you can become something, there's always a chance, there's always a possibility.


Meghin: Yeah and I know that’s be a great event, that’ll be on Friday February 28th at our North Las Vegas Campus in the Nicholas J. Horn Theatre. The public portion of that begins at 6 p.m. and so that'll be great, that's open to the public, that’s open to the community, that's about a 500 seats theater, so I do know there's a lot of interest in that so if folks wanna come out and hear that ,make sure you get there early on that Friday, and I think that's great that we're bringing in these the speakers to talk to her students and share their life stories.


I know another big thing that student government does is clubs, I actually recently became a club advisor this semester, so it opened my eyes to the the world of student clubs at CSN, but Manny I know that's a lot of what you do, so can you talk about why it's important to have sort of a robust club atmosphere at CSN and what that means for our students to have that?


Manny: So like you were saying these clubs have been quite amazing and your club is actually quite amazing and fantastic as well. We’re seeing more students got getting involved in and there's such a diverse array of clubs when it comes to education activism, when it comes to our black student union, our culinary club and so many more ideas are coming up and coming up fostering these these clubs have been an amazing thing for our student,s because they're starting to be active. A huge thing and I don’t want to say it’s a problem with CSN, it's more of a concern that we have seen in student government is that we are a commuter school and a two-year institution. That's just a fact.


We don't want to be just a commuter school where people come in take classes and leave, it's so much more that. We're seeing more soon as active on all three of our campuses and even on our 9 extension sites. And actually we’re building more of a base at CSN, people are actually proud to call themselves Coyotes and CSN students. I think the student government has fostered a lot and that starts with you know our clubs and everything.


We're seeing, you know, students take on leadership positions that you know is going to not only excel them with like their major, but with their life in general and we're slowly coming out of oh, we’re just CSN or we're just a community college to, ‘We are CSN, we are the largest institution in the state of Nevada, we have power to our voice’ and that starts with you know students taking those leadership positions and joining these like extracurricular activities that you know are constantly going on.


Meghin: Yeah I can't speak highly enough of having these student unions on campus now. They're changing how the students experience the college, like you said with most community colleges you arrive for your class, you take your class and leave, I think Brian calls that parking lot-class-parking lot.  So how do we get our students to just feel like CSN is a community and is their home and is a place where they want to sit and hang and be in their clubs. When we talk about clubs, I always think of the gamers, we have like very active playing games and you know they're intense games, they're not playing clue, I can't join them yet, but maybe one day I’ll get there.


Manny: They have full championships that they do and it’s so structured so perfectly and they put that on themselves.


Meghin: It’s the students who have taken the initiative and we’ve given them the space and the opportunity to have that opportunity and that home.


Manny: Every Wednesday if you go to that June Whitley Lounge you will see tons of students organizing themselves. They bring their own TVs, they bring like gaming systems, sometimes, they set up in our study rooms when it’s not as busy. And with that student union, I've never seen any empty.


Nick: I feel like it's mainly about creating a community. Community college isn’t like something that you fall back on, it can be a really good opportunity for you and for everybody you know because any step toward greater education is a good step, and it's not only about going to classes, it's also about having fun. 


You should have fun, play games, do whatever, we have a coffee shop and just come here to make friends, make connections, and it can be great for you. I’ve seen people make amazing business connections even just at a community college here at CSN. It's not a second-chance, it’s not like I have nowhere else to go, it's more like I'm here and I can make something great happen. That's what CSN is about.


Meghin: So we’ve talked about all these great things that student government does, we know about the emergency fund, the Coyote Cupboards, Student Government clubs, if there are students that are interested, what are some good ways for them to get involved, Dan maybe you can answer that question?


Dan:i So one of the best ways that students can get involved is spark up a conversation. What any students interested in getting involved in the best ideal situation is them walking up to the student government office and saying hey how do I join the student government. Most of the time, there won't be able to position, but we will still figure out a way to accommodate somebody who wants to help, because you can join a club, you can help foster more of a sense of home by joining a club, you can join advisory councils, you can work at the cupboard, you can simply come and volunteer and I think that's just the way. It's going out of your way to make CSN your home.


Manny:  I think you see a lot of our students getting involved to start going to those meetings first they're going to our committee meeting and our senate meetings and they’re seeing like the inner workings are going on and it's just it's making them strive for wanting to be more at CSN essentially.


Brian: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, February 11, 12 and 13, we have the CSN volunteer fair. CSN serves is an area that I oversee and we have a volunteer fair and we have members of the community that come to CSN and let our students get involved with some service leadership opportunity.


Meghin: Great and I know that we have a lot of students who need those volunteer hours as part of a scholarship requirement but if we can get them as part of a scholarship requirement they might find a service organization that day that they really love. I'm so glad that y'all could join me and studio so I just wanted to say thank you Brian Manny, Nick and Dan, you guys are one of my big groups for coming in here and for joining us. You've been listening to CSN Subject Matter, the College of Southern Nevada’s weekly radio program in conjunction with KNPR. 


I'm Meghin Delaney from the CSN Communications office. You can learn more about anything we talked about today by visiting csn.edu. You can also find CSN on any social media site if you search for us were there we look forward to helping you succeed and I'll see you next time