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May 06, 2024

Free meals, supplies for Snead State students

Students may help themselves to a quick breakfast or lunch between classes at Snead State Community College. Additionally, students may go to the cafeteria for The Rotary Plate, which is a free, hot

Students may help themselves to a quick breakfast or lunch between classes at Snead State Community College. Additionally, students may go to the cafeteria for The Rotary Plate, which is a free, hot meal to go, paid for by the Boaz Rotary Club.

With a little over a year under its belt, the Parson Pantry at Snead State Community College has continued to expand to meet the needs of its students.

The idea of the “pantry” is to offer students non-perishable food items, toiletries and school supplies at various places around the campus. The places are in areas that if students were to have those needs, it would be discrete.

This concept has been trying to come together for years but when Caitlin Dickerson became a full-time math instructor at the campus, the ball started rolling.

“One of the first emails I received when I was hired at Snead two years ago was about wanting to start a pantry,” Dickerson recalled. “They wanted staff to help make a pantry for students who had food insecurities and basic needs. I helped start the Aggie Pantry at Albertville High School, so I thought, ‘I can help because I have experience with this.’”

Dickerson said the ball then started rolling and never stopped.

Dickerson and Brittany Goble head up the pantry, with one student helper and a team of around 10 others.

“This took a year of planning and has been implemented for about a year now at school,” she continued. “Up until this fall semester, we did just have one central location, in the bottom floor of the McCain Center/Student Center next to the vending machines. So, it’s just in a discreet location.”

She said that they have had such good success, that they then started “Grab & Go” stations. They currently have five of those across campus.

“Those stations give students the opportunity for a quick breakfast or a quick lunch in between class or after class,” Dickerson continued. “One of my biggest things is that this is not geared toward one type of student. All students can be in need regardless of if they are going through a hard season or they are running out of time and they don’t have time to go to the store.”

Snead did a survey through Auburn University and it came back that 48.6% of its student population that took the survey had some sort of basic need or insecurity.

“It’s a problem that we are trying to address. We are trying to help students not have to worry about basic needs so they can focus on their academics and be as successful as possible,” Dickerson continued. “Hopefully in the next year, we would like to expand to a clothing closet and dress attire for interviews and things like that. As they are preparing to get their associate degree or going onto a 4-year university or even into the workforce we want them to be prepared. There aren’t many details yet, but it is on the horizon. We survive strictly on donations and we thank the community because we have had some much community support and we are appreciative of them helping our students.”

The pantry, which was custom made for Snead, holds non-perishable food, hygiene products, baby diapers and school supplies. The “Grab n Go” stations have protein bars, pop-tarts, protein shakes and various other small items.

Donations for the Parson Pantry can be made on site. They can schedule pickups and also accept monetary donations.

New for the fall semester, the Parson Pantry is partnering with the Boaz Rotary Club and bringing “The Rotary Plate.”

Snead State Community students can visit the Snead cafeteria Sunday-Friday 1:30 - 2 p.m. and request a “Rotary Plate.” This will allow students to grab a FREE, hot meal to go and also help reduce food waste.

Students need to bring their student I.D. to receive the to-go meal.

For more questions on the Parson Pantry or The Rotary Plate, email [email protected].

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