Due to Contra Costa County’s shelter-in-place, Los Medanos College’s campus has been closed since March 16. However, the LMC Food Pantry is still available for student service with limited hours. 

“It might help to alleviate some of the stress around the virus since the stores have been emptied,” said LMC Associated Students President Thyra Cobbs.

The LMC Food Pantry has been helping students since spring of 2017 with a mission to provide free food, goods and other resources to help students be successful at home and in their classes.

Partnered with CalFresh, which is a federally funded program, the food pantry continues to assist low income families by providing healthy food. The food pantry offers students and their households assistance in acquiring healthy foods that they may need, as well as health information about the foods being provided. 

Students who are currently enrolled at LMC and are involved in programs such as EOPS, CARE, MESA, and DSPS may qualify for assistance. 

 Due to the shelter-in-place order in the county, there has been a restriction on how and when the LMC food pantry can distribute items keeping the public’s safety in mind. 

Even during this difficult time, the food pantry has been able to provide limited hours for students in need to come onto campus and receive the pre approved services. 

These dates and times are for the Pittsburg LMC campus and are as follows: Mondays from 3 to 5 p.m. and Thursdays from 2 to 4 p.m. 

Students that are in need of supplies and qualify for this support must stop by the campus between these available hours of operation for assistance. For further safety, there are some terms and requirements students need to be aware of. 

Students must present their LMC student ID or provide their student ID number, must leave campus immediately after pick up, are allowed up to one bag of food supplies per household while supplies last, and substitutions in the bags cannot be made as the bags will be pre-packaged.

“It [the food pantry] being open shows how LMC cares for its students,” said Cobbs.

For more information, visit https://www.losmedanos.edu/foodpantry/index.aspx. To apply, go online to losmedanos.edu/foodpantry and click on the ‘complete intake’ tab to start the application.