The Oberlin Writing Associates Program and the Oberlin Public Health Society’s Food Justice program both hosted food drives this semester, placing boxes around campus and encouraging students and staff to donate nonperishable goods to support families in need. All donations to the OPHS drive will go to Oberlin Community Services. The WA drive will donate to the Empowered Early Learning Academy in Canton to keep preschoolers and their families well-fed over the holiday break.
Writing Associates Program Coordinator Kayla Kim, OC ’25, was responsible for the advertising, implementation, and processing of the donations this year. This is the second annual drive.
“The previous WA program coordinator started [the food drive] as a way for students to feel more involved in the local community after the 2024 election,” Kim said.
In addition to food, the WAs also worked to collect toiletries and monetary donations for EELA. Although donations started out slow, Kim estimates that the WAs have collected around $360 and seven or eight bags of non-perishable goods.
“A lot of people are struggling right now, so it’s kind of hard to say, …‘[Can you] donate to this as well?’” Kim said. “But there have been more people donating over the past couple weeks.”
Academy Director for EELA Canton Sadie Owens, OC ’23, was a writing associate during her time at Oberlin. She initially invited WAs to the preschool as an education opportunity for Oberlin students.
“A lot of the students I had at the time — and still have now — struggled with different behavior disorders or issues like that, where communication becomes a very important tool to help them get what they need and help them regulate themselves,” Owens said. “This connects a lot to what we studied as WAs.”
Since opening in 2023, EELA Canton has also served as a food pantry for its families. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 28.4 percent of Canton residents are currently living in poverty. Owens acknowledged that the loss of SNAP benefits during the government shutdown has increased food insecurity in the region.
“We’ve started to open our doors to community members, to try to help alleviate, just generally, the city,” Owens said.
OPHS has taken a slightly different approach to combatting food insecurity with a continuous food drive for OCS. Boxes with approved donation lists have been stationed outside of the Science Library, in front of DeCafé, and in King Building 100 all semester. The collected goods are picked up by OCS every Friday. College third-year Andrea Romero is the leader of the OPHS Food Justice Program, which facilitates the drive. She emphasized the need for consistent support for Oberlin families experiencing food insecurity.
“Food insecurity is not something that occurs only once,” Romero said.
Romero commented that she sees the largest amount of donations toward the end of the semester as meal swipes and flex dollars begin to build up in Oberlin students’ accounts. Last Friday, OPHS donated approximately 40 items to OCS.
In addition to food collection, the OPHS Food Justice Program also encourages students to volunteer with OCS and their most recent partner, George Jones Farm. Romero and a group of students volunteer regularly, and she encourages others to sign up by scanning the QR code inside the donation boxes.
