OPEN!! UMBC Retriever Essentials CCMA AmeriCorps Position

Retriever Essentials is a faculty, staff, and student partnership tackling food insecurity in the UMBC community. The program offers three ways for students to receive access to healthy foods and other essential supplies, free of charge: Food Zones, Save a Swipe, and Community Partnerships. Food Zones are six designated locations on campus where students can anonymously pick up a pre-packed bag of non-perishable groceries and toiletries. The intake process is anonymous, but a short demographic based intake survey is required--no financial evidence of need is required. Additionally, there are 3 locations on campus with donation bins--Retriever Essentials is a fully donation-supported food pantry-- where the campus community routinely provides non-perishable groceries for programming. The Save a Swipe program provides free meals to the campus dining hall. Students with meal plans can sign up to donate either 5 or 10 meals to the Save a Swipe “pool.” These meals then become available for use by students who are identified as food insecure by trained Retriever Essentials team members and campus staff, so they can eat on campus for free. Community partnerships act as the final pillar to Retriever Essentials. Retriever Essentials is aware that food insecurity is often the tip of the iceberg in a student’s financial struggle and can be the first of many barriers to academic success. To provide support for “higher needs services,” the UMBC Clinical Social Worker will refer students who are utilizing Retriever Essentials to other campus and/or community resources. All three aspects of Retriever Essentials programming provide a pathway to academic success for the most at-risk UMBC students.