Nassau Community College food pantry marks 10 years feeding students, staff in need

While teaching a summer course at Nassau Community College years ago, Helen Rice confronted a very thin student who was falling asleep in the back of her classroom.

Rice, an adjunct professor in the college’s English Department, said she was initially angered by the student’s nodding off, until he told her he hadn’t eaten in 24 hours.

“We had many students who were hungry,” Rice said, “and they were hidden.”

Since then, the college, which estimates that roughly a third to half its student body is facing food insecurity, has helped students facing a similar predicament through its food pantry, The NEST.

On Tuesday, the pantry marked 10 years on the Garden City campus by doing what it always does — providing food for free to hungry students, except this time with hot pizza among the foods available, along with music and a bounce house for the occasion

The food pantry remains in high demand as inflation stretches students’ ability to buy food. Also, pantry officials said, recent cuts to assistance programs by the Trump administration have reduced the amount of food available for students.

Moreover, many college students are not eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, according to the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance’s website.

Many times, “the students have to decide, ‘Am I going to pay for my tuition, or am I going to be able to put food on the table for my family this week?’ ” said Sharon Masrour, executive director of The NEST and also a professor in the English Department.

“There’s such a tremendous need,” she later said, “and we’re just grateful that we’re able to be here for it.”

The pantry was stocked Tuesday with items such as canned goods, frozen chicken pot pies and stuffed pasta with butternut squash sausage. Whether that will change is a growing concern.

The pantry sources food from Island Harvest and Long Island Cares — The Harry Chapin Regional Food Bank. Both food banks have seen their federal funding cut by the United States Department of Agriculture, Newsday has reported, leading to less food to places like The NEST.

Each week, hundreds of people — mostly students, but often also faculty members and other staff — arrive at The NEST in search of provisions for themselves and, in many cases, their families. It is a long way from the days before the pantry’s creation, according to Masrour and Rice, when they would stash granola bars and juice boxes in cars and file cabinets to give to students.

Leah Li, a sophomore at Nassau Community College, volunteers at the pantry about once a week. After she does that, she picks up items from the pantry like fresh vegetables for herself.

“It saves a lot of money,” she said.

Pantry officials are considering plans to expand in the future to include clothes and social services, said Jerry Kornbluth, NCC’s vice president for community and governmental relations and its spokesperson.

“We’re just not an educational institution,” he said. “We need to provide for our students so that they are successful.”

Tiffany Cusaac-Smith is a general assignment reporter for Newsday. She previously worked at USA TODAY and is an alum of Howard University.