Nico Geraci 

Staff Writer

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Northwestern Michigan College's Mobile Food Pantry was a service that fed thousands of individuals, what happened to it? The capstone project of one of Cathy Warner’s English students ideas, sprouting one of the communities most well received food distribution projects. 

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In the Fall of 2023, one of Warner’s students, Ava Serrano, saw a problem in our community: food insecurity. Unlike others who would just observe and continue with their lives, Serrano decided to do something different, she decided to propose the idea of a Mobile Food Pantry. 

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The idea of a food bank on NMC’s campus was not a new idea. The Stationary Food Pantry had been up and running since 2013 and continually served around 100 people per month, as well as a mobile food pantry that was only a semester long. But there was a problem: this still wasn’t reaching enough people. 

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In the spring of 2023, NMC’s new and improved Mobile Food Pantry had its debut in the Maple Lot of the Osterlin Building. The first year of the Mobile Food Pantry, though helpful, underperformed compared to the well established Stationary Food Pantry. 

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Serrano proposed a new idea, more frequent distributions. She proposed that the program goes from only distributing food on a monthly basis to every other week. 

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Fast forward to the 2024-2025 academic year, things have really flipped around. According to Carly Noga, the Mobile Food Pantry helped nearly 184 people per month, and within the first five pop-ups distributed 21,496 pounds of food to hungry students and community members.

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All of this costs less than a thousand dollars due to donations from businesses like the Oleson Foundation, as well as NMC student volunteers who are willing to volunteer their time to improve others lives. 

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Unfortunately for Serrano,the funding was only for the 2024-2025 academic school year. Past that, this incredible program has slowly burnt out. 

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There were promises from Warner about making the Mobile Food Pantry a permanent service, but since she is no longer working at NMC there has not been a driving factor. 

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The opportunity is still able to be picked up by any student who wants to make a difference. For now there is no Mobile Food Pantry, however, the Stationary Food Pantry is open most days of the week. Giving students the food they need 8am-8pm Mondays and Wednesdays, 8am-5pm Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and 3pm-8pm on Sundays. All it takes is a scan of a QR code in the Osterlin Building.