CUNY Initiative Matches Students with Benefits, Services Needed to Persevere During Pandemic and Beyond

January 27, 2021

Campus ‘One-Stop Shops’ Provide Access to Pantries and Other Food Security Resources, Health Care, Housing, Legal and Financial Assistance

Colleges Have Adapted to Meet the Challenges of COVID-19, Aiding Students Through Supermarket Gift Cards, Home Deliveries, Direct Deposits

Asia Khan, President of the Queensborough Student Government Association (l), and CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez, with scissors for the ribbon cutting, opening the Queensborough Cares Food Pantry and banner, during the Chancellor’s Meet-and-Greet visit to the campus.

When Saidat Ogunyele was laid off from her job as a home-care provider in April, the second-year LaGuardia Community College student turned to LaGuardia CARES, a one-stop, poverty-fighting program that connects students to life-changing resources, referrals and local community services to help them remain on a path to graduation. One of the benefits that Ogunyele, a first-generation college student and immigrant from Nigeria, received took the form of a gift card, which she used to buy basic-need items for her two young daughters.

“I cannot hide my excitement,” Ogunyele wrote in an email to the LaGuardia CARES program director Rhonda Mouton. “To all those involved in this charity — may God pave the way for you where there seems to be no way.”

Ogunyele is one of thousands of students at the City University of New York who has greatly benefited from an initiative designed to meet the evolving needs of students and which provides an array of remote and in-person services that include access to pantries and help applying for food stamps and housing assistance; financial and tax preparation assistance, and other services newly incorporated to address issues created by the pandemic. The program is available at the seven CUNY community colleges and John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and its necessity has become even more vital since the start of the pandemic.

“CUNY is working hard to ease the burden on its resilient community with a newly expanded, all-encompassing network of services that will make it easier for students to pursue their academic goals,” said Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. “Students who are facing food and housing insecurity, and those who have lost their jobs and lack income, can now access these one-stop shops at their colleges and get help. I encourage anyone who isn’t already taking advantage of these resources to contact their campuses and avail themselves of these inclusive resources and services.”

More than a decade ago, CUNY became the first university in the nation to partner with Single Stop USA to offer confidential, no-cost benefits to low-income, high-need students of two-year colleges. Today, CUNY’s self-standing successor program includes staff with backgrounds in social work who continue to provide a safety net of resources. They help students find the means to pay their rent; they advocate for victims of domestic abuse, and those who are coping with food insecurity.

Getting Creative

Adapting their programs to the challenges of the pandemic with the help of state and city support, colleges have had to get creative, devising innovative solutions such as cash transfers via direct deposit, food deliveries to students, and newly-forged relationships with community-based organizations to support students. They were aided by the support of the state and city, including Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s recent expansion of eligibility for SNAP (food stamps) for some college students and a $1 million pilot program by City Council Speaker Corey Johnson to help CUNY students fight food insecurity.

Here is a look at some of the innovative means by which campuses have been able to help students during a period of largely remote learning.

  • With one in four students suffering from food insecurity at John Jay College during the pandemic, Malaine Clarke, who oversees John Jay’s Food Pantry, Health Services and Emergency Funding under the Wellness and Resources banner, started incorporating a drop-off component, in which students fill out a shopping list and within 24 hours John Jay staffers purchase and deliver food and toiletries. So far, 254 students have benefitted from this resource. In October, Clarke started providing monthly food stipends of $150 to students who suffer from food insecurity and are unable to make it to campus. For those who can make the trip, Clarke has public service officers pre-pack food to expedite their in-person visits.
  • In response to a 50 percent increase in student food insecurity and homelessness during the pandemic, Borough of Manhattan Community College’s Advocacy and Resource Center (ARC) started providing in-person hot meals to students last summer as part of a partnership with the Feed the Frontlines NYC initiative, said ARC Student Life Manager Deborah Harte. She noted the Panther food pantry served nearly 600 families from July through December, and distributed grants of $600 or more to roughly 1,200 students.

BMCC student Bernadette Perna fought back tears as she described the difficult battles she has waged to continue her education, a 10-year journey that was prolonged by mental health issues, food insecurity and financial obstacles. “I will never forget what they’ve done for me; they never stopped calling me to help,” said Perna, who expects to graduate this spring and transfer to CUNY’s York College in the fall. Her persistence was aided by BMCC’s ARC, which provided subsidized MetroCards and food vouchers, tax and legal assistance and help in securing SNAP benefits. “Bernadette is the epitome of perseverance,” said Harte. “And whatever challenges she had, we found the resources to help her.”

  • Bronx Community College Access Resource Center Director DeDra Polite established relationships with Bronx-based organizations such as POTS (Part of the Solution) to help an increasing number of students with housing insecurity issues. In April, she also tabbed the non-profit Agatha House Foundation to, in conjunction with Uber, deliver food to students fearful of leaving their homes during the pandemic.
  • Kingsborough Community College’s Access Resource Center (ARC) has placed a special focus on making sure students have enough food. Since the pandemic began, the center has served nearly 3,800 families at its food pantry and distributed 45 supermarket gift cards worth $100, said program director Hattie Elmore. Two students who were desperately in need of aid received gift cards totaling $1,000, she added.

First-year Kingsborough student Jessica Watson was elated to receive a $100 supermarket gift card in November at a time when her local food bank was low on supplies and she was unsure where her next meal would come from. “I didn’t know what I was going to eat,” she said. “I didn’t have any food and it literally saved me.”

  • To address an increase in the number of students who lost their jobs and needed financial assistance, LaGuardia Community College’s College Access for Retention and Economic Success (CARES) has distributed $5,000 worth of gift cards to students and helped them to enroll for health benefits. Program Director Rhonda Mouton estimates that CARES has helped 45 students to save a combined $900,000 in legal fees since March; in that time, 20 students were also able to save a combined $240,000 in healthcare costs, and 91 students saved more than $725,000 in financial fees. LaGuardia’s food pantry has also served nearly 2,100 individuals. Since the pandemic began, CARES has delivered food and other provisions directly to student-parents in their homes.
  • Guttman Community College’s Connect Center has ramped up efforts to assist students suffering from food insecurity. The center has mailed grocery gift cards and authorized cash transfers via direct deposit into students’ bank accounts. With some students and their families falling behind by as much as 10 months on their rent and others struggling with utility bills, Guttman has provided emergency funding grants ranging from $19.99 for a phone bill to $2,000 for rent, said Guttman program director Dana LePage.
  • Hostos Community College’s One-Stop Center has been hard at work helping students fill out SNAP applications and processing requests for cash assistance, two areas in which Hostos program coordinator Madeline Cruz has observed an uptick in demand. Cruz has also connected students to legal services to help resolve housing issues and provided access to the college’s food pantry.
  • Queensborough Community College’s Advocacy Resource Center (ARC) Program Director Amawati Gonesh reports an increase in the number of students coming to her to apply for unemployment and SNAP benefits and in the number of financial grants she has distributed to help students pay housing costs.

Open Doors and Helping Hands 

To determine eligibility for benefits, students and their families participate in a short question-and-answer session. College program counselors then direct students and their families to federal, state or local benefits that they are eligible to receive. More information can be found by visiting college program pages below:

The City University of New York is the nation’s largest urban public university, a transformative engine of social mobility that is a critical component of the lifeblood of New York City. Founded in 1847 as the nation’s first free public institution of higher education, CUNY today has seven community colleges, 11 senior colleges and seven graduate or professional institutions spread across New York City’s five boroughs, serving 500,000 students of all ages and awarding 55,000 degrees each year. CUNY’s mix of quality and affordability propels almost six times as many low-income students into the middle class and beyond as all the Ivy League colleges combined. More than 80 percent of the University’s graduates stay in New York, contributing to all aspects of the city’s economic, civic and cultural life and diversifying the city’s workforce in every sector. CUNY’s graduates and faculty have received many prestigious honors, including 13 Nobel Prizes and 26 MacArthur “Genius” Grants. The University’s historic mission continues to this day: provide a first-rate public education to all students, regardless of means or background.

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