By: Cierra Terry
In Nance Boyer Room 2009, the Department of Communication, English and Foreign Languages (CEFL) has a resource room. The resource room contains food and toiletries alike.
Rachel Nunn, a current freshman, didn’t know there was a place like this on campus.
“But I think it’s a good thing that it’s accessible, just in case anyone needs to get something out of it,” Nunn said.
The resource room accommodates the Cameron community.
“It helps students have access to food if they don’t have a meal plan,” Nunn said.
However, not everyone knows the resource room exists on campus.
“I think it needs to be something that more people should be aware about, especially freshman,” Nunn said.
Leah Chaffins, an Associate professor here at Cameron University is one of the faculty members that helped get it started.
“The faculty of the CEFL department give to it. Anything we can think of we put it there, when someone thinks of something we don’t have, we either put that out or that person goes and gets it,” Chaffins said.
The CEFL department had unofficially been seeking to organize a space for the community of Cameron University to indulge and help themselves in their time of need.
“One time I had a student from another country whose financial aid was tied up. They didn’t have any food and were looking at getting removed from their home,” Chaffins said. “At this point, we’re not even talking about school books, we’re talking about a young person who is here from another country who had done everything right but because of factors beyond their control were now looking at asking themselves ‘where do I sleep tonight’.”
Cameron has an abundance of organizations that help students.
“But sometimes there are gaps and there’s lots of resources on campus to fill those gaps in but it really brought to my awareness that although we have those precautions we do have students that fall through them sometimes and we need something there for them,” Chaffins said.
Students who are struggling with resources have a difficult time prioritizing school.
“It’s hard for students who are having food instability or having living situation instability to focus on their schoolwork so if we are able to alleviate some of that stress that means our students are hopefully able to perform better,” Chaffins said.
The resource room has been available for about two years.
“We sat down one day and said ‘what if we just put food in a room and let it walk out’ Some items last longer than other items but normally those who are contributing to the room are probably are spending about 30 a month on products,” Chaffins said.
The resource room has options for food including oatmeal, granola bars, tuna, and hygiene products such as deodorant, shampoo, feminine hygiene products and more.
Students can walk in freely without having to identify themselves.
“What we didn’t want was to have a space where students had to sign in and sign out for the products. We just wanted a room where a student can either go sit in there and study or they can go sit in there and take the items they need. There doesn’t need to be attention drawn to a person that’s already struggling. They already feel like eyes are on them most of the time, so having that bit of anonymity seems to be helpful,” Chaffins said. Students can access the resource room during normal campus hours. For more information about the CEFL Resource Room, contact the department at (580) 581-2272.