Food insecurity is one of the biggest issues facing Rutgers students. According to a study conducted by Rutgers Student Affairs, 36.9% of undergraduate students and 32.1% of graduate students experience food insecurity.
NJPIRG’s Hunger and Homelessness campaign aims to address the needs of these students, as well as other vulnerable communities by providing free services. On Saturday, April 26, the organization hosted a successful, free healthcare pop-up clinic at United Methodist Church. A hygiene product drive was held 2 weeks prior to the health clinic, where donations of menstrual products and other hygiene products such as toothbrushes, toothpaste and deodorant, were accepted.
Every donation was valuable for the pop-up, as NJPIRG students were able to serve 46 members of the New Brunswick community. In addition to hygiene products, food items were also distributed. NJPIRG members and volunteers also connected attendees with resources for primary care and other social services for needs that couldn’t be addressed at the clinic itself.
Hunger and Homelessness campaign coordinator, Zöe Robinson, a School of Arts and Sciences senior, described planning the clinic as a learning process.
“I had never run anything like this before, and we kind of threw around the idea of doing it last year, but then for my capstone project, I was like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna make this happen,'” said Robinson.
To start, Robinson conducted a needs assessment of local community centers, food banks and other organizations serving her target population. From this, she was able to figure out how to best help those in need with the clinic.
The next steps involved a lot of planning and re-planning, because according to Robinson, reaching out wasn’t very fruitful in the beginning.
“Once we were able to get solid coalition partners and coordinators… I think that it went really well,” she said.
Robinson had an original goal of having five clinicians at the pop-up, but was able to secure help from eight different organizations. As a result, she surpassed her goal of serving 40 people at the clinic. Robinson’s success with this event, opened a whole new realm of opportunities for the campaign, advancing its reach to another level.
To students passionate about the issues NJPIRG tackles, but are scared to get involved, Robinson emphasized the importance of taking the first step.
“There’s so much political turmoil in this country, and people just don’t know where to take that first step,” Robinson said. I think it really comes down to not being scared of the things you don’t know, and lead with the things you do know, because you’ll find other people, you fill in those gaps.”
Overall, the campaign’s progression this semester has made room for further developments to be made by campaign coordinators next semester. Students who want to get involved in the Hunger and Homelessness or other ongoing campaigns should visit their website or Instagram page for more information on how to get started, either as a volunteer, intern or core member.
Robinson is graduating along with other core members, making space for other passionate students to take on big roles and make an impact.
“This organization was my first time participating in civic engagement…I’ve met a lot of people with similar passions and I know in a couple of years we could meet up and do some really cool things together…using the skills we’ve developed from getting involved in school,” said Robinson.
College is the time for students to explore their passions and try new things, and Robinson’s journey shows the fruitfulness in taking the first step to do so.