Frederick Community College caters to students of all backgrounds, from old to young, from higher income to lower income. No matter who you are, life can get busy especially when trying to set yourself up for success, for one reason or another it is easy to forget to eat or not be able to afford daily trips to the cafeteria.
Shelby Carmon, office manager of student leadership and engagement at FCC, is trying to make sure no student is left behind when it comes to being able to eat by managing the upkeep of the FCC Grab and Go food locker.
According to Carmon, the locker is in Student Center Room H101, the Office of Student Leadership and Engagement, where students can walk in and anonymously fill out a QR code form to take food from the locker up to two times a day. Additionally, the office keeps cold water bottles in a refrigerator for anyone to take.
Carmon said the whole setup is designed to be as safe and approachable to all types of students as possible and serves as a great community center.
“This is a safe space, it’s there for the students,” she said.
According to Carmon, in 2014, Jeanni Winston-Muir, the executive director of student leadership and engagement, saw the need from students and decided to take matters into her own hands. She was the one who established the Grab and Go locker.
“It started out about 300 visits a year,” Carmon said, “Now, it’s 300 visits a week”
The program was initially able to get off the ground thanks to a college fund, but it has since moved on from kind faculty members to larger donations from the Frederick community.
“I love the community here,” she said.
Within the office, Carmon manages a weekly newsletter to track the number of people using the Locker and keep donators in the loop.
Carmon says the Grab and Go program is one of three student food programs located within the Student Center, with there being the Cougar pods in the hallway in nearby room H101, and the Cougar Mart in the bookstore. All these programs work in tandem to lift the load from struggling students and allow them to continue their education without worry.
Anyone interested in helping with this effort can email Carmon at [email protected], or contact the FCC Foundation office located in Annapolis Hall 200.
