Wednesday, February 17, 2021
Minutes
The Academic Senate Committee on Committee on Food Insecurity of the Academic Senate met on Wednesday, February 17, 2021, 1:00 - 2 P.M, Zoom
Committee Members in Attendance:
Present:
Dr. Kathleen Alves
Dr. Jonathan Cornick (Chairperson)
Professor Dorith Brodbar
Professor Ashlie Klepper (Secretary)
Dr. Nicole McClam
Dr. Christopher Roblodowski
Dr. Jun Shin
Dr. Amy Traver
Liaisons in Attendance:
Ms. Ronni Weprin, Administrative Liaison
Dr. Emily Tai, Senate Designee
Business:
The meeting was called to order at 1:00 PM
Food Insecurity Meeting via Zoom
Wednesday February 17th, 2021 1:00-2:00 PM
In attendance: Jonathan Cornick, Emily Tai, Nicole McClam, Amy Traver, Ashlie Klepper, Ronni Weprin, Jun
Shin, Dee Brodbar, Kathleen Alves, Christopher Roblodowski
● Minutes from last meeting were approved by committee
Shout Outs
❖ Shout out to Vice President Kerr for his wonderful new opportunity! We will miss you and
thank you for your service to our committee and our school
❖ Shout out to Amawati for her award!
❖ Shout out to Jun who has been our sole pantry worker this semester
❖ The NYC council gave community college food pantries $20,000 to spend between now and
June!!!
Staffing the pantry for the Spring 2021 semester
❖ As of now, due to covid as well as schedule conflicts, the pantry is only open on Fridays 10-12 with
Jun running it.
❖ Last week Yusuf Gurtas from the math dept volunteered and met with Jun to see how the pantry is run
❖ Going forward it would be nice to have pantry hours on Monday and Fridays- however, we need
consistent volunteers for these days.
❖ Going forward there is potential for additional faculty volunteers outside of our committee. However,
we do not know if those hours will count towards a faculty's CV and service to the college. This may
affect how many faculty will actually volunteer.
❖ Pending approval from administration, we will send out a correspondence to faculty on campus
seeking pantry volunteers. In the meantimes, committee members are encouraged to talk to their
chairs about it.
❖ Public Safety expressed concerns about students demanding entry into the pantry- it seems they are
fine helping us out and giving out pantry bags as long as we have them packed. Moving forward,
volunteers can focus on packing bags during their volunteer hours.
❖ Some students want to know what's in the pantry so Jonathan will compile a list to share with students
and possibly put on the pantry website.
Student Outreach
❖ Discussion on how we can do more student outreach since a majority of our students have never been
to campus and may feel anxious about coming to the pantry. One way to rectify this is through word
of mouth from students.
❖ One way students may feel more connected to the school is if we can get gift cards to those in need
❖ Students who contact Amawati are the ones who get the gift cards in variances from $50-100
❖ Ronni will check in with Amawati on whether students are eligible for gift cards without registering
❖ There is a student activity event next week that Jonathan will attend and speak at to spread the word of
the Food Pantry and ARC
Respectfully submitted,
Ashlie Klepper
Committee on Committee on Food Insecurity of the Academic Senate, Secretary
