Helping Hands: Citrus College faculty members help homeless and food insecure students thrive.

Some exceptional Citrus College faculty put in the extra effort to help students thrive in all aspects by going beyond the classroom. Homelessness and food insecurity rates among college students have reached a record-high. Members of the Citrus faculty join together to work towards a common goal- to help their students in any and every way. The dean of students, Dr. Maryann Tolano-Leveque, Homeless & Foster Youth liaison, Carisha Parks and Director of EOP&S, Sara Tapia-Gonzalez share their contribution in helping homeless and food insecure students.

Dr. Maryann Tolano-Leveque:

Dr. Maryann Tolano-Leveque was initially inspired to raise awareness about homelessness and food insecurity after learning about one of her student’s experience. In 2013, she worked as the Director of Student Life and as an advisor for student government at Mount San Antonio College.  Two students expressed their concern about a fellow student leader who was experiencing food insecurity and wanted to seek help for their friend.  Dr. Tolano-Leveque tried to help in any way that she could by providing food and gift cards, but she soon realized that this was most likely happening at other colleges too.

“I started researching and found a story about a UCLA student who was living out of his car.  It brought light to a situation [involving] students living out of their cars, taking showers at gyms… they’re just trying to make it and stay in school,” said Dr. Tolano-Leveque.

After this realization, Dr. Tolano-Leveque set up a survey to find out how many homeless students were on campus.  Of those who took the survey, 5 percent were homeless or were still homeless within the past year.

She started to send out emails informing students and faculty about food pantries and also started working to get mobile food pantries on campus.

Dr. Tolano-Leveque brought her ideas from Mt. Sac to Citrus College when she started to work as the Dean of Students in 2016.

She put together a handbook specifically for homeless and food insecure Citrus students. Dr. Tolano-Leveque tells students to use the 211 directory, which provides information about services in the area that the caller is specifically looking for. The “Student Guide to Free & Low-Cost Resources” includes information about shelters, counseling, food banks, libraries, thrift shops, etc., around Citrus College.

Carisha Parks:

When Carisha Parks isn’t helping students in line at the Financial Aid office,  you’ll most likely find her aiding homeless and food insecure students. Serving as Citrus’ homeless and foster youth liaison hits home for Parks as she once was in a similar situation.

“I was in foster care since I was 2 years old,” Parks said. “I felt a little homeless. The only thing that kept me [going] was working on campus.”

After being emancipated out of foster care, Parks became a student worker in the financial aid department at Antelope Valley Community College.

“While I was trying to get a room, I worked on campus and [went] to school and it helped me out a lot. I was able to stay focused and well, I have my own place now,” Parks said smiling. “And I got experience to apply as a full-time faculty member at Citrus.”

Parks always advises students to apply for federal work study because she knows first-hand how beneficial it is.

“I absolutely know the background of foster youth, so when I got to work with [them] it just clicked,” Parks said. “It’s like, ‘Hang on, I know what you’re going through, just breathe.’”

She takes students to the three designated food pantries on campus. There are food pantries inside the foster kinship care education office, veteran success center, and the student health center.

Parks also hands out two resource guides. The “Student Guide to Free & Low-Cost Resources”, put together by Dr. Maryann Tolano-Leveque and the Office of Student Affairs; and the “External Local Services Resource Guide.” Both resource guides include information about housing, counseling, shelters, food pantries, and other services.

Parks always has an open door for students and lets them know to call her anytime they need anything.

Sara Gonzalez-Tapia:

Sara Gonzalez-Tapia noticed the EOP&S students were having difficulty trying to receive CalFresh benefits.  CalFresh is a program that helps provide monthly benefits for low-income families and/or students gives a stipend of funds to purchase food. As the director of EOP&S at CalWorks and the Regional President for EOP&S Care Association, she decided to set up a meeting with the Chancellor’s Office to find out how Citrus can help.

Gonzalez-Tapia and EOP&S Care Supervisor, Joanne Hinojosa, coordinated a phone meeting with the Chancellor’s Office and the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank.

“That’s kind of like it all started.  It really was just a question to the chancellor’s office, ‘How do we offer this to students?’. We ended up really benefiting from that one conversation.” said Gonzalez-Tapia. “And so, it kind of became this really big snowball effect.”

Gonzalez-Tapia decided to partner up with ASCC, Dr. Maryann Tolano-Leveque and Rosario Garcia to bring a mobile food pantry on campus.

“We knew this was a bigger issue; it [wasn’t] just what we were seeing here in the EOP&S Program,” said Gonzalez-Tapia.

The team sought out to set up contracts and organize a budget for the mobile food pantry to park its truck on campus on designated days for the rest of the year.

After the mobile food pantry’s success, they worked with the L.A. County Department of Social Services to bring their CalFresh community coordination team to come help students apply for CalFresh benefits and Medi-Cal on campus.

“We went from food insecurity, to health insurance, to getting more benefits for students trying to access more food on campus,” said Gonzalez-Tapia.