A troubling number of college students are going hungry. Ahead we meet a group addressing the issue.
We're live at Cerritos College in the city of Norwalk and take a look at this, there's already
a line of cars waiting for a food distribution drive that gets underway at nine o'clock this
morning. Believe it or not some of the people waiting in this line: college students! As you said
one in five of them are experiencing homelessness. We'll also talk about how you can help. Coming up...
Alright, you might recall last week we told you this landmark study out of UCLA with a
startling statistic. There are now more than a quarter of a million
homeless students in California. Our Bob de Castro is in Norwalk with a group that's actually
looking to reverse that trend and trying to help out. Talk to us what's going on out there.
You know it's just one of those things that just kind of breaks your heart, right? When you see at
five o'clock in the morning there are already cars waiting here in line for this food distribution
that gets underway at nine o'clock and as we said you know some of these are people that are in the
community but there are also some students here as well. One in five, 20 percent of college students
are experiencing homelessness and more than half have some sort of food insecurity. So this is a
food distribution that's getting underway. Nine o'clock this morning. It's uh, you see some of
the volunteers here as well, with the L.A. Regional Food Bank and of course Cerritos College which
now has an outreach program to try and help some of these students as well. Pamela's here to talk
a little bit more about that because uh you know when you hear about that 20 percent of college students
it is staggering what is what is going on here what's leading to this and obviously the pandemic
has made it even worse. Pamela: absolutely uh it's really important for our community to understand that
our college students are trying to also still recover from the recession from many years ago
and going back to college to better their life and still facing food insecurity housing
insecurity as you stated over 60 percent of our students are experiencing food insecurity and
this is before Covid and so here at Cerritos College we want to ensure that our students
don't have food or housing insecurity as a barrier for their academic success. Bob: Yeah it's
kind of you know students living in cars which is which is crazy; but Cerritos College, you have your
own program here one of the things I want to show some video of is for the first time ever the state,
uh, uh, in the state you have housing for homeless students, that's one of the things that you've done
here. Pamela: Yes we are beyond proud of our partnership with Jovenes Inc., a local non-profit, where our
college has partnered with Jovenes to ensure that students who are experiencing housing insecurity
have various different options and programs to ensure that they're not sleeping in their car
and writing papers in their car but instead that they are, they're warm in a home with
a bed and that they are fed. Bob: Yeah and The Village, right now which is also on campus
here, is it, which is a the new town homes uh six different town homes for homeless
uh, uh, students but this is a a staggering. Thank you so much Pamela. It is um just heartbreaking to
see and it is a line that continues to grow. Again this is a outreach, a food distribution outreach
begins at nine o'clock this morning it goes to eleven o'clock in the morning and eighty pounds
of food will be distributed to to anyone to people who need it over here in Cerritos College but uh
really really eye-opening Michaela when you think about it people who are are literally living in
their cars and then trying to matriculate at the same time there there was a law that
they was trying to pass last year in the state that allowed students to live basically in the parking
lots that law that bill was not passed so you know students are just out there fending for themselves.
Michaela: Yeah when they may not have support at home we need to set them up for success and it sounds
like that campus there is doing their best to do that but man that lineup of cars behind you
sobering reminder of how many folks are struggling right now um and uh we got to do what we can to
to help them out. There's a lot of people really fighting to make ends meet uh thanks Bob for that.
Leanna I turn to you now and I know this hits you in the in the heart too because
these are these are people, these are neighbors these are folks just trying to make ends meet.