From classroom to community: INT 100 students make an impact at Replenish

In the basement of Kirkhof Center sits Replenish Basic Needs Center. Overseen by the Center for Women and Gender Equity, the food pantry is stocked with fresh and non-perishable food, sanitary items and other necessities. Students visited Replenish in early November to volunteer their time and learn about food insecurity on campus. 

The collaboration was between Replenish and INT 100: Reflect, Connect, Engage, an integrative studies course taught by affiliate professor Dan Cope. The class is part of a First-Year Learning Community, which allows the same group of students to take paired classes together. 

“The program recognizes that first-year students need unique support, and may benefit from having a sort of built-in community around them,” said Cope. “A big goal is to help them get acquainted with the campus as their community.” Cope gets her students out of the classroom as much as possible she said, from yoga classes at the Recreation Center to the GVSU Art Museum to Replenish. 

“Food insecurity is an issue for a lot of students, so the goal was twofold,” said Cope. “Not every student who comes through my class is going to be food insecure, but because there's so much of a shame culture around not being able to provide for yourself, I thought, 'Let's introduce this in a really friendly way that reduces that and shows how to get involved with caring for one another.' And if anyone is dealing with this, now they’ve walked there and know how to find it, which reduces a barrier.” 

The class met at the Center for Women and Gender Equity, where assistant director Mimi Sperl explained how pantry usage has increased since late October when Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments were paused. Nearly 50 new users have signed up for Replenish since then, she said, compared to only 19 in the two weeks prior. 

A lot of the work that gets done for Replenish is inventory, explained Paige Hannum, a Replenish student intern, who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in applied food and nutrition and a master’s degree in clinical dietetics. “We go through donations, then write down what we received and how much, and organize based on expiration date,” Hannum explained. 

While one group of students tagged items with expiration date stickers, another group split boxes of sanitary pads, tampons and diapers into individual bags, and other students got to work on a fall decoration project to make the space more warm and welcoming.

“As students, one of the most impactful things you can do is just know how to access our services,” said Sperl. “If you get the sense that a friend or classmate is struggling, you can help get them tapped into these resources, because we know that when people are hungry, they're not as successful academically.” 

In addition to the food pantry, Replenish also has a laptop loan program and runs a winter coat drive for those in need of warm clothes. The pantry has a second location in the Cook-DeVos Center for Health Science building. Both locations have expanded their hours for the rest of the semester, and students are able to visit twice a month. Replenish is also grearing up for Giving Tuesday on December 2, their biggest fundraising day of the year.