MILWAUKEE — The rising cost of food in the U.S. is driving more college students to food pantries.
Milwaukee Area Technical College’s new food pantry at its Walker Square campus is helping ease the cost burden for students.
Marta Prado is a student studying early childhood education at MATC. As a mother of four children, she said it’s been hard to keep up with rising grocery costs.
“Porque no tengo trabajo seguro, necesito este ayuda,” said Prado. (Because I don’t work, I need this extra help.)
Prado doesn’t work a job right now because she’s focusing on her education full time.
She said she’s thankful to have this extra help, and that she loves being creative with the different items MATC has to offer.
Hailey Weber is the student resource center coordinator for the food pantries.
“MATC is a direct reflection of Milwaukee’s community,” said Weber. “We are able to provide food to students on campus and eliminate that one obstacle.”
She said MATC serves about 1,500 visitors every month. They go through about 1,400 pounds of food every week.
She said they’re expecting those numbers to increase in the coming months.
“We know that food instability can be a barrier to success,” said Weber. “We want to make sure students on every single campus have access to healthy foods.”
Maria Dominguez will be working at the MATC pantry next semester. She said this is helpful for students who don’t have time or transportation to go to other campus pantries across town.
“A lot of times when you tell a student they have to go downtown for the pantry, they kind of get discouraged,” said Dominguez. “Just having this here is just really helpful.”
Feeding America donates the food, which is sorted and presented in a market-style shopping experience. Students are encouraged to stop by weekly to fill shopping bags.
Food pantries are also located at all four MATC campuses, located in Downtown Milwaukee, Mequon, Oak Creek and West Allis.