Last semester, students at Cal State Monterey Bay (CSUMB) watched their on-campus food bank suffer from long lines and bare shelves. With the largest incoming class in years, the Basic Needs Hub struggled to supply unprecedented demands.
However, at the tail end of the fall semester, the Hub announced a partnership with the new Trader Joe’s in Marina. Since then, the center has been reimagined to accommodate the growing influx of donations.
Since partnering with Trader Joe’s, Basic Needs Hub Coordinator Robyn DoCanto and Director of Care and Basic Needs Amy Zamara said the center’s supply of bread and produce has doubled, requiring an additional fridge.
This increase in donations is evident in the updated layout of the Hub, where once-empty shelves have been packed tight with non-perishable goods and novelty items like fruit cakes, Jell-O and KitKat cereal.
“One of our goals has always been to ensure the feel of Basic Needs is that of a high-end, eclectic grocer,” said DoCanto. “We are constantly sourcing new products to bring in excitement.”
The campus-wide enthusiasm for the hub is reflected in its daily attendance, garnering more than 300 students visiting each day.
“If each person just grabs what they’re eating today, you help 300 people eat. So that’s definitely rewarding,” said Hamza Al-Hakim, a fourth-year molecular biology major, who has been a student assistant at Basic Needs for two years. He volunteered as a service learner before then.
“We’ve grown in such a large way over, like, a semester or two,” Al-Hakim said. “It gets overwhelming sometimes, but knowing why we’re doing it, what we’re doing and how many people we’re helping it definitely makes us more motivated to keep doing what we’re doing.”
“The growth we have seen always feels great, because it means that students know where they can get support and that is the most important,” said DoCanto and Zamara agreed.
Francisco Lopez, a fourth-year humanities and communications major, has been a student assistant since last April. Lopez says she feels fulfilled by providing necessities to students on campus, especially those within marginalized communities.
“We’re really able to extend a helping hand to a lot of people,” Lopez said. “Not only can they get their beans and rice, but also something to eat while they’re going to class, they can make sure their children have diapers and clothes. I feel like that has alleviated so much stress for students that are just trying to get by.”
Although DoCanto and Zamara are proud of the Hub’s progress, both remain focused on maintaining an “ever-changing model” for the resource center.
DoCanto said, “It is part of our strategic plan to consistently reevaluate the needs of our space and how to better support our students, ensuring that they are thriving and not surviving.”