{"id":1447,"date":"2019-08-19T15:15:38","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T21:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/?p=1447"},"modified":"2019-08-21T07:19:26","modified_gmt":"2019-08-21T13:19:26","slug":"ssc-to-open-food-pantry-for-students-this-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/ssc-to-open-food-pantry-for-students-this-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"SSC to Open Food Pantry for Students This Fall"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Seminole State College is preparing to open a food pantry for students this fall. The College is currently gathering non-perishable food items and monetary donations to ensure its inventory will meet student needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In order to sustain the availability of food for students, SSC has partnered with the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. According to the Regional Food Bank, Oklahoma is the sixth hungriest state in the United States.<!--more--><\/p>\n\n\n<p>Vice President for Student Affairs\nDr. Bill Knowles said the College wants to alleviate a common challenge and\nstressor for students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cStudents may have to choose between\nbuying their textbooks and paying their tuition bill, or buying food for\nthemselves or their families.&nbsp;Some students choose to drop or withdraw from\ntheir classes due to the inability to buy food,\u201d Dr. Knowles said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the five-county area SSC\nprimarily serves, food insecurity rates range from 14 to 19 percent. On a\nnational level, 44 percent of students have skipped or cut the size of their\nmeals, and 20 percent of students did not eat for a whole day due to a lack of\nfunds for food. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SSC has launched a payroll\ndeduction program, so its employees may donate from their earnings directly to\nthe food bank\u2019s efforts. Dr. Knowles said that if just 50 of the College\u2019s\nemployees donate $5 per month, the food pantry will be able to provide 1,000\nmeals to students monthly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"684\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/food-bank-training-pic-1024x684.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1448\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/food-bank-training-pic-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/food-bank-training-pic-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/food-bank-training-pic-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/food-bank-training-pic-50x33.jpg 50w, https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/food-bank-training-pic-788x526.jpg 788w, https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/food-bank-training-pic-500x334.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/food-bank-training-pic-1000x668.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/food-bank-training-pic-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/food-bank-training-pic-800x534.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/food-bank-training-pic.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption><em>Assistant Athletic Director and Student Government Association Sponsor Leslie Sewell, Student Government Association President Tijah Johnson and Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. Bill Knowles attend a training event at the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma to help kick start the College\u2019s food bank initiative. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Community members are also welcome\nto help support this initiative with food or monetary donations. Most needed\nfood items include anything high in protein, such as canned chicken, tuna or\nbeef stew, chili, nuts and peanut butter. Other needs include canned fruit and\nvegetables, granola bars, cereal, pasta\/rice and sauce, juice boxes and\nself-stable milk products. All items must be nonperishable. \n\nIf you are interested\nin giving to the SSC food pantry, you may contact Dr. Knowles at <a href=\"mailto:b.knowles@sscok.edu\">b.knowles@sscok.edu<\/a>\nor 405-382-9272.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Seminole State College is preparing to open a food pantry for students this fall. The College is currently gathering non-perishable food items and monetary donations to ensure its inventory will meet student needs.\u00a0 In order to sustain the availability of food for students, SSC has partnered with the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. According to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/ssc-to-open-food-pantry-for-students-this-fall\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">SSC to Open Food Pantry for Students This Fall<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1448,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,34],"tags":[77],"class_list":["post-1447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-http-www-sscok-edu-media-campuslife","category-community","tag-august-2019"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1447"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1449,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447\/revisions\/1449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sscok.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}