Long Beach City College’s Basic Needs Program will be offering students multiple opportunities to get free food on campus in the days leading up to Thanksgiving.
The first of these events is a drive-thru giveaway at Veterans Memorial Stadium, where students can receive free food with no ID or eligibility required.
The giveaway will be held on Friday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
“We’re bringing about 4,000 kits to the distribution,” said Victoria Lasavath, marketing and communications manager for L.A. Regional Food Bank, who is partnering with LBCC for the giveaway.
According to Lasavath, each kit will contain 50 to 70 pounds of food per household, and will include items like pasta, rice, cereal and fresh seasonal vegetables.
Lasavath said she is expecting a substantial turnout for this event.
“With Thanksgiving coming up, food is going to be top of mind. That’s not accounting for other issues facing our community, like the ripple effect of the government shutdown and high levels of food and nutrition insecurity,” Lasavath said.
Lasavath hopes the event will encourage anyone who may need these crucial resources to seek help.
“I think that all of us involved really just want to ensure that our neighbors dealing with food and nutrition insecurities know that they’re not alone and that they are supported. There can be a lot of negative emotions surrounding food assistance, so we just want to let everyone know that we are here to help them,” Lasavath said.
The Gobble and Give: Thanksgiving Feast Giveaway will be held on Monday at LAC, in front of the B Building, from 12 p.m. until supplies last.
200 premade kits with Thanksgiving essentials like turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and mac and cheese will be given to LBCC students who bring physical ID cards.
On Tuesday, students can stop by LAC A Quad for Full Plates, Full Hearts: Food Distribution, from 12 p.m. until supplies last to receive rice, beans, pasta and more.
“Students can come outside and see not only the Basic Needs booth, but a bunch of our community partners for mental health or cell phones or housing discussions. And we’ll be giving away a bunch of free produce as well, like we usually do for the Viking Village Market, too,” said Christian Davis, a Basic Needs assistant.
The final on-campus food distribution before Thanksgiving is the Viking Village Market will be held on Wednesday at the LAC A Quad, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The Basic Needs Program will partner with CalFresh for the event.
Despite the government shutdown ending on Nov. 12, Davis said students are still struggling in the aftermath of the event.
“There hasn’t been a single student saying that their life is back on track since the shutdown. The only thing that’s really changed is that air traffic controllers are back on the job,” Davis said.
Although the recent SNAP benefits cut has affected many students, the Basic Needs Program has been making efforts to help reduce food insecurity among students.
“Even though students did inevitably start getting their funds throughout the month, it’s something that we were kind of anticipating. We were already going to have this event, regardless of the cut. And with the cut that happened, we just made sure that not only did we increase the amount of people we were giving to. We made sure that we (were) including more items in these bags as well,” Davis said.
Justin Mendez, director of the Basic Needs and CASA Grant programs said providing students with food resources helps to make their educational experience easier.
“It’s all about reducing the financial burden for our students. Anything we can do to allow students to focus more on their studies and reduce financial stress,” Mendez said.
