Food pantry at Golden West College does more than just feed the hungry

The shelves of Golden West College’s new basic needs center, the Stand, are lined with cans of beans and commercial fridges with glass doors displaying milk and stacked cartons of eggs. Nearby, bins overflow with bananas and other produce. The resource center on the Huntington Beach campus is more spacious than the site of the former pantry and has the look and feel of grocery store.

The reopened center is the result of a state grant and a partnership with Second Harvest Food Pantry, one of Orange County’s leading food banks.

“Students who are registered at Golden West College, whether they are credit or non-credit, they can come in once a week and get a full grocery bag of food, ” said Christina Ryan Rodriguez, dean of enrollment services at Golden West College.

Bananas fill a bin at the Stand at Golden West College in Huntington Beach.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

On Sept. 19, Golden West hosted a ribbon cutting for the new center, inviting students, media and partners into the space with coffee and pastries to celebrate.

“I love the name, the Stand, because you have all taken a stand for your students,” Claudia Bonilla Keller, chief executive officer at Second Harvest said in an address at the opening. “Please know that Second Harvest will stand with you.”

Each year about 18,000 students enroll at Golden West and most of them have some level of financial need, said Rodriguez. The Stand is a critical resource, providing groceries and hygiene items for 2,000 students each year. Additionally, the Stand is also a place where students can find personalized case management that can help with needs like housing, childcare and emergency grants. The center also serves the undocumented community, the LGBTQ+ community and veterans or individuals connected to the military.

“We are really focusing on what we can do to make this a one stop for students that are struggling and need that kind of support,” said Rodriguez.

The Stand is also where students can find Yasmin Bravo, a student retention specialist at Golden West whose work focuses on connecting students to resources to help them succeed, both on and off campus.

Yasmin Bravo, a student retention specialist, shows stacks of fresh eggs at the Stand.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

“If they need resources for clothing, transportation or housing I connect them and give them information or provide referrals,” said Bravo. “For our homeless students we do provide backpacks, lockers, if they need a locker here on campus and shower times.”

Bravo can also help students get free tutoring from the Academic Success Center or access to hygiene items. The Stand even has a Chromebook loan program.

“We also have basic needs grants available to students, so they are able to apply for housing, basic living expenses and child care grants,” said Bravo.

During the spring 2024 semester, Golden West distributed more than $250,000 in basic needs grants. Students who received an average of about $800 in grants had a course success rate of 83%, compared to a 72% course success rate for the general population of students there.

Food is an important basic need, but a wholistic approach aimed at serving the whole student can lead to better chance at success, college officials said, and it is an outlook that is also being adopted in the food-insecurity industry.

“At Second Harvest, we have had to evolve. We went from being a hunger relief organization that was pushing food out there as fast as we could, and we certainly did during the pandemic.” said Keller. “But we discovered something in recent history, and that is if we deliver better food to our community we can count on a better outcome … we now consider ourselves to not only be fighting food insecurity but nutritional insecurity.”

Potatoes and onions fill bins at the Stand, a resource center that provides groceries and hygiene items students at Golden West College.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

A lot of the food Second Harvest sources for the Stand is fresh produce, grown at farms in Irvine.

“We are on a nutrition mission,” said Keller.

Bravo also said contrary to popular belief, access to the the Stand isn’t based on income.

“I help all students who are enrolled here … as long as they are an enrolled student here, even if they are a student who is taking a high school and college class which is dual enrollment, they have access to this,” said Bravo. “Also if they are working on their GED, if they are non-credit students or taking English as second-language classes, this is also available to them. This is free for all students, no matter their income.”