Associated Students Inc. (ASI) focused on improving student life by providing assistance with food insecurity and housing options during the ASI Senate meeting on Thursday, Nov. 7.
The board of directors discussed and presented some updates from organizations on campus focusing on making students’ lives easier and more convenient.
The updates on the Poly Pantry were among the first discussion for the senators. The Poly Pantry is the on-campus pantry full of food and necessities available year-round for all Cal Poly Pomona students.
Alyssa Christiansen, ASI care coordinator, lead the conversation with upcoming events and major progress the Poly Pantry has experienced this year. “We’ve distributed over 15,000 items,” Christiansen said.
“Every day, I’d say on average, we have 45 students in four hours. Every student gets 10 items, so that is 450 items that are distributed every day in the pantry.”
Joanne Guintu | The Poly Post
The Poly Pantry will be hosting Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week beginning next Monday, Nov. 18 until Nov. 22. This event aims to restock the pantry and supplies as well as educate students on food insecurity.
“Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week is a nationwide campaign to bring the attention to hunger and homelessness on college campuses and within our community and across the nation,” Christiansen said.
This event will include multiple ways student can help the Poly Pantry restock and how they volunteer on campus and in the community. It will include “Stock the Pantry,” which is a food and supplies drive that will be open all week long at various places on campus.
The last discussion item was a presentation of College Pad with Steve Catlin, director of Strategic Partnerships. College Pad is an online platform that allows students to compare and find off-campus housing in the easiest way possible.
College Pad will have no cost for ASI if it agrees to partner.
The funds the company receives are directly from landlords that sign up to promote their open rooms. The online resource also acts as reviews and rankings board where past renters can comment on their experience with their stay and the landlord.
The company has already signed with numerous colleges across the nation, such as Cal State Long Beach and the University of Minnesota.
ASI did not come to a decision and will decide at a future meeting if it wants to partner with College Pad.
Another announcement by Celeste Salinas, director of the Children’s Center, informed the board that the center would assist student parents on campus during the last weeks of the semester.
During “the pre-finals week and the week of finals, we will be offering evening childcare services for student parents on campus,” Salinas said.
“It doesn’t have to be children who are currently enrolled (in the program).”
For more information on the finals week evening child services, visit https://www.cpp.edu/~focus-on-finals/index.shtml.