The Mesa Market receives a surprise $1,000 check to fund campus food pantry.
A check of more than $1,000 was given to the Mesa Community College (MCC) Mesa Market at the end of the semester to fund the market’s programs to support students in need of food and resources.
The funds for the check were collected by the MCC Student Support Foundation (SSF) and prepared as a surprise for the Mesa Market throughout the spring because of the growing number of families receiving assistance from it.
Mesa Market coordinator Beth Ann Wright said the extra funds also came in time as the market is working to replenish supplies for the summer.
“I was super excited! Super surprised!” said Wright. “It’ll just allow us to make sure that we will be able to have that food and be ready and stocked up.”
The Mesa Market’s food pantry at the Southern and Dobson campus has been shut down since campus closure. Yet, it has helped students in need more than ever through the curbside pick up service where they distribute food items, school supplies and hygiene products. Meal kits were also distributed during the spring as part of one of the market’s new projects.
Wright said the money received from the SSF will allow the market to continue offering more benefits to students and maintain current projects.
According to SSF director and founder Maria Estrella Dawes, it was challenging to meet the funding goal for the check because students have been struggling financially and mentally from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The pandemic has made things so stressful for everyone, and students have really been struggling,” she said.
Along with this, the two-week network outage that shut down the college’s system during spring break was a major obstacle for the online fundraiser quickly reaching its deadline. Yet, the foundation did not give up and used social media to keep up the campaign.
“We were like biting our nails hoping that we were gonna be able to at least meet the minimum requirement –and we exceeded it,” said Dawes.
The MCC SSF was created last summer to offer emergency assistance to students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last fall, it helped nearly 400 students with emergency stipends from a $4,000 grant provided by the Morgridge Family Foundation. This semester the SSF carried out its first fundraising campaign from which the funds given to the Mesa Market were collected.
“They have proven to be very effective at maximizing whatever they receive to help as many students as possible,” said Dawes. “So, I can’t think of a better department or place to give the money than the Mesa Market.” Dawes encouraged more students wanting to become leaders in philanthropy to join the SSF, which plans to do more fundraisers during upcoming semesters to give back to the community at MCC.
