Oak Ridge Today

‘Brain Food’ need increases as federal aid reduced

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Roane State Community College Brain Food volunteer Mariella Akers, left, with Sue Byrne from First Presbyterian Church of Oak Ridge, a sponsor for the pantry. (Photo courtesy Roane State)

By Bob Fowler, Roane State staff writer

“Brain Food,” the name of Roane State Community College’s pantry for students at the Oak Ridge Branch Campus, has seen a big increase in students taking advantage of the free service.

A reduction in federal assistance that went into effect in late September is seen as one of the reasons for the uptick, an official said.

At the Oak Ridge campus, between nine and 11 students were helped by Brain Food each week during the Spring 2021 semester, while that number jumped to 18 to 20 students in the fall.

Last year, more than 120 students were served. After tallying the reported members of each student’s household, pantry staffers estimate that a total of 373 people received assistance in 2021. Mariella Akers, Oak Ridge faculty secretary and Brain Food volunteer, added that 120 of those household members were children.

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‘Brain Food’ pantry opens at Roane State’s Oak Ridge campus

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Brain Food Pantry Roane State 1
Sue Byrne, third from right, cuts the ribbon for the new Brain Food pantry, located in Roane State Community College’s Coffey/McNally Building in Oak Ridge. She is the assistant project manager for the First Presbyterian Church of Oak Ridge’s partnership to help stock the campus’s pantry. From left are Scott Niermann, executive director of the Roane State Foundation; Kristie Hopwood, agency relations coordinator for Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee; Kara Allen, an assistant manager of the Kroger Store in Oak Ridge; Melissa Eads, corporate affairs manager for the Kroger Nashville Division; Byrne; Karen Brunner, vice president of Roane State Institutional Effectiveness and Research; and Roane State President Chris Whaley. (Photo courtesy Roane State)

By Bob Fowler, Roane State staff writer

It’s a vexing, persistent problem nationally: food insecurity issues experienced by many college students. Roane State Community College is again doing something about it.

That’s the message delivered by Chris Whaley, president of the community college, during the formal opening of the Brain Food Pantry on the college’s Oak Ridge campus.

Some 40 percent of college students nationwide “struggle with hunger,” Whaley told the crowd attending the ribbon-cutting in the former Anderson Grille in the campus’s Coffey/McNally Building.

Making sure students—and their families—have proper and adequate nutrition “is as much a part of student success as what happens in the classroom,” said Karen Brunner, the college’s vice president of institutional effectiveness and research.

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