“HVCC Viking Cupboard” provides food to students
By Eric Mannato, Staff Contributor
Hudson Valley Community College’s Viking Cupboard is available for all students to visit and obtain food each day between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. at Student Activities in the Siek Campus Center.
To be eligible to receive food, students must provide their student IDs and occasionally their student numbers. Each student is allowed to take 2 bags of food per visit but can visit the Viking Cupboard as many times as they need. Food is available at the pantry Monday through Friday for students to access on campus.
Items being offered at the Cupboard include canned goods, cereal, snacks, fruit, pasta and even hygiene products. With the recent purchase of a refrigerator over the summer, cold foods such as meat, dairy, and vegetables will be offered for students within the next few weeks as well.
“We’re also going to be providing milk and egg certificates from Stewarts starting on October 6th,” said the Director of Student Life EOP, Alfredo Valarin. A program has also started with New York State where food is purchased from farmers and given to the school for free. “We want to make sure our kids have store-quality products to eat and are healthy,” said Valarin. “We’re very cautious to make sure that we keep all of our products fresh and updated more for our students.”
Donations of personal hygiene products, canned goods, and snacks are also accepted by the Viking Cupboard at any time they are open in Student Activities.
Hudson Valley Community College is one of the first SUNY schools to start a food pantry and has had it accessible to students for 25 years. “They started it to address the food and security issues that we were seeing on campus,” said Valarin. “Today it’s an issue that’s got more attention statewide, but it was still an issue 25 years ago.”
Even during the lockdown of COVID-19, Student Activities still kept the Viking Cupboard available for students that were not taking classes on campus. “We worked with the Foundations Office to offer a virtual food pantry,” said Dashira Cortes, Assistant Director. “We purchased gift cards from the Hannaford Supermarket and students would receive an online Hannaford gift card.” The food on campus that was not able to be given to students during COVID-19 was instead brought and donated to food drives.
“We’ve been putting out apples and pears at the snack table, and we’re going to put posters up letting students know about the Viking Cupboard, and where they can go to get free snacks if needed,” said Valarin. “We want students to see it as if you forget your lunch money one day and you’re hungry, you are able to come to our office and get a snack.”
David, a sophomore at Hudson Valley Community College, said, “The Viking Cupboard is well structured and important for any and all students to utilize.” Mark, another student, said, “The Cupboard is easily accessible and a great way for students to have a snack if needed.”