Moraine Valley Community College held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its recently expanded Project Care Food Pantry on Tuesday, Nov. 19. The long-anticipated expansion was funded by two Northwestern Medicine Community Benefit Grants, totaling $70,000.
The college developed the Project Care initiative to meet the basic needs of students on campus. According to Teresa Hannon, a counselor in the college’s Counseling and Career Development Center, while Project Care has expanded to offer students an array of wraparound services, the initial focus of Project Care was the campus food pantry, established in 2015.
The grants awarded by Northwestern Medicine aim to meet community needs as assessed by a survey of Northwestern Medicine Palos Hospital’s internal and external community stakeholders. In 2022, the report identified lack of access to food and food insecurity as critical community needs that the food pantry at Moraine Valley meets.
Grant funding covered the cost of construction, equipment, supplies and marketing associated with expanding the existing food pantry. A former storage room and office in the Counseling and Career Development Center were converted to provide sufficient space for sorting and storing food. In addition to shelves for nonperishable food items, the pantry now has cold storage and a stock of hygiene products and school supplies, creating a full-service experience for students in need.
At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Moraine Valley President Dr. Pamela J. Haney shared the impacts of the food pantry on campus. “Results of a post-visit survey indicated that 69% of visitors reported not having enough food in their household most or some of the time, and 50% said they were unable to eat before arriving on campus due to a lack of food in their house,” she said. “While it’s unfortunate that many of our students need this critical food assistance, we are fortunate to be able to help them in their time of need.”
Haney also shared that, in the previous year, students had accessed the food pantry 178 times and, since the start of the fall 2024 semester, visits to the pantry have increased 40% compared to the same period last year.
President of Northwestern Medicine Palos Hospital, Mike Vivoda, also spoke at the event, sharing the importance of partnering with Moraine Valley on this project.
“Wherever there’s a community need, we should respond. We have means, and we want to do that. This is an elimination of a stressor for Moraine Valley students, and we are happy to be a part of that,” Vivoda said.
The ceremony also included remarks from Moraine Valley Board of Trustees Chair Beth McElroy Kirkwood; Susan Wade, vice president of the Moraine Valley Foundation Board of Directors; Dr. Scott Friedman, dean of Student Engagement; and peer educators in the Counseling and Career Development Center.
For now, the pantry is open only to students, but a future aim is to open its doors to the surrounding communities as a member of the Greater Chicago Food Depository. The Counseling and Career Development Center also provides personal counseling as well as educational, career and human development services at no cost to students.
For news media inquiries, contact Madisson Younglove, Moraine Valley assistant director of communications, at (708) 974-5281 or younglovem2@morainevalley.edu.
