A new resource center has opened at Sacramento State with an emphasis on addressing food insecurity, unstable housing, and healthcare gaps that students face.
The Basic Needs Resource Center, located in The Well, as a part of the Student Health Counseling and Wellness Services (SHCWS), had its grand opening on Thursday, September 24. The center operates Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Students can have access to the center by making an appointment for one weekly visit to the resource center, where they can get up to 12 items. The center provides nutritionally dense foods, breakfast, cereals, soups, proteins, clothing, toiletries, and more.
The center also offers support services, mental health counseling and is equipped with a kitchen.
Senior Associate Vice President Jeannie Harris Van Dahlen said the reason for the BNRC is that they want students to thrive. She said it represents a vision that goes beyond the basic needs of the students.
“It's about breaking down the non-academic barriers that so often prevent students from persisting and ultimately graduating at Sacramento State,” she said. “We believe that every student deserves the opportunity to focus on their education without having to worry whether or not basic needs are being met.”
Vice President of Student Affairs, Dr. Aniesha Mitchell, said the new space is a promise to students that they don’t have to navigate the hardest parts of their lives alone.
“We know that many of our students are striving for academic success while facing challenges that no one should have to endure — food insecurity, unstable housing, gaps in health care.,” Mitchell said. “These are barriers no college student should have to face. And yet, across the country, the support systems students rely on are being reduced or eliminated entirely. Here at Sac State, we are choosing a different path.”
Mitchell recognized former ASI president Nataly Andrade-Dominguez and current president Aranjot Kaur for their advocacy that led to the opening of the BNRC.
Andrade-Dominguez said the advocacy began in 2022, when students returned to campus after the COVID-19 pandemic, and a resource center was needed. There was the ASI Food Pantry, but it was limited in what they were able to provide for students, she said.
“This idea actually stemmed from seeing a student on campus looking for food through a trash can, which really kind of opened my eyes and what we needed, like, there's a problem that we need to fix,” Andrade-Dominguez said. “Since then, it was a lot of just thinking about what we can do. You have to think about the funding and who's going to run it, and all the logisticals about it, but just being able to see it in person compared to like an idea or a thought, it means the world to me.”
Kaur, an international student from India, emphasized the importance of the center for students without access to food stamps.
“As I look back into my first few months here at Sac State, it just took me a lot of time even to figure out we have a food pantry,” Kaur said. “Now, with the opening of the Basic Needs Resource Center, it is instrumental because there are students on campus who don't have access to CalFresh food stamps and all those programs.”
Kaur added that with these resources now on campus, they’re ensuring students have access to meals and basic needs.
“With food pantry and now the (BNRC), we are just amplifying the resources for students, because both of them are going to provide the students,” she said. “So at the end, for me, it is a statement that Sac State cares for student success, not just in the classroom, but the real wellbeing as well.”
There are additional services that students can access through the SHCWS, the BNRC is just one of them, according to Van Dahlen.
“If a student accesses the (BNRC), they also have access to care, they have access to mental health, they have access to medical help to our state licensed pharmacy,” she said. “In addition, we have timely care, which is after hours, weekends and holiday mental health and physical care for our students. We're one of the first CSU’s in the system to have 24/7 wraparound services for our students.”
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