In 2025, Moraine Valley Community College released a five-year strategic plan outlining five priorities to guide the college’s efforts: student success, program development, community engagement, resource advancement, and technology. As the finishing touches were made on the plan, the college’s expanded Project Care Food Pantry opened. This project exemplifies Moraine Valley’s strategy for developing essential resources to support students and fulfill its priorities. It is rare for a single campus initiative to support all of the college’s strategic priorities so clearly, but in meeting students’ basic needs, the Project Care Food Pantry does just that.

The Need

Moraine Valley serves 26 communities through over 140 degree and certificate programs. With an enrollment of more than 11,000, the college’s student body represents a wide variety of backgrounds and ages. While the college opened a food pantry through its Project Care initiative in 2015, the growing importance of addressing students’ mental health and overall well-being, combined with a timely grant from Northwestern Medicine in 2021, led to the pantry’s expansion to the Counseling and Career Development Center in 2024.

Data show that food insecurity is a growing concern for students. Since the food pantry’s expansion, Moraine Valley has experienced a 4 percent increase in unique students supported and a 27 percent increase in the number of visits, with 89 percent of survey respondents saying they could create a healthy meal from items received.

Student Success

The Illinois Community College Board cites that, “according to recent studies, as many as 39% of community college students nationally face food insecurity.”ⁱ At the same time, the Center for Higher Education Policy and Practice shares that “students facing food insecurity, in particular, experience higher academic stress, lower credit accumulation, and increased likelihood of stopping out.”ⁱⁱ  While the community college may aid in closing the affordability gap in terms of tuition, it falls short if it stops there. Indeed, addressing food insecurity on the community college campus may directly correlate with increased student success.

Moraine Valley takes a holistic approach to supporting students’ success. Students must visit with a college counselor to use the pantry. This practice allows the counselor to identify other needs the student may have—including academic help—and provide resources to assist the student, which, in turn, aids in the student’s overall success.

Program Development

Moraine Valley’s priority to foster program development has a special focus on expanding programs and services for nontraditional students. The Lumina Foundation shares that food insecurity rates for underrepresented students range from 33 percent to 51 percent.ⁱⁱⁱ The Project Care Food Pantry provides services to meet the needs that as many as half of nontraditional student populations have. Innovation is more than cutting-edge technology and boundary-pushing programming; sometimes, it is finding new ways to meet students’ needs by expanding services that already exist.

Community Engagement

The Project Care Food Pantry was established through Community Benefit Grants from Northwestern Medicine totaling $70,000. Every three years, hospitals in the Northwestern Medicine health care system conduct a community needs assessment. One of the needs identified in Northwestern Medicine Palos Hospital’s 2022 report was food access to combat food insecurity. Moraine Valley’s food pantry expansion aligned with the hospital’s goals.

Partnering with Northwestern Medicine opened the door to meeting the needs of the students and community members facing food insecurity. Students are welcome to take what they need from a full-service food pantry stocked with refrigerated and frozen options. By providing a wide range of options, the pantry serves individual students as well as those who may have other mouths to feed.

Resource Advancement

Receiving Northwestern Medicine’s Community Benefit Grants provided the opportunity for Moraine Valley to deepen its existing partnership with the health care provider. Northwestern Medicine has long been a clinical partner for health care students and has provided opportunities to local high school students through the college’s Health Careers Boot Camp. In fact, Northwestern Medicine saw its existing partnership with Moraine Valley and encouraged the college to apply for a Community Benefit Grant to fund its food pantry expansion. This is a testament to the power of partnerships to advance shared goals to serve the community.

Meeting Students’ Needs

Aside from the Project Care Food Pantry’s placement in proximity to college counselors, perhaps the most impactful part of the expansion is the addition of freezers, refrigerators, and storage to meet the varied needs of our students that often extend outside campus spaces. Additionally, the expansion of facilities and storage types provides a range of fresh and healthy food options that meet the nutritional needs of students beyond the scope of traditional nonperishable pantries.

Moraine Valley is committed to providing students with the resources they need to be successful. The college understands that students cannot accomplish their educational goals if they face challenges in meeting their basic needs. For an institution with competing priorities, the expansion of the Project Care Food Pantry is a reminder that when we focus on meeting the needs of students, every other priority falls into place.

ⁱ Illinois Community College Board. (2025, October 8). Illinois Community Colleges Launch Second Annual Feed The Need Campus Food Drive, para. 7.
ⁱⁱ Center for Higher Education Policy and Practice. (2026, February). Basic Needs Gaps Increase the Risk of College Stop Outs, p. 1.
ⁱⁱⁱ Afyouni, A. (2023, November 20). Food Insecurity and Higher Education: A Review of Literature and Resources. Lumina Foundation, p. 1.