By Shawn R. Beas November 10, 2016
Students and staff at Middlesex Community College have started a food pantry program that provides assistance to the campus community. The Magic Food Bus, a renovated party bus outfitted with shelves of staples like pasta, cereal and peanut butter, began operating shortly after the fall semester started. So far it has distributed food more than 70 times. Professor Judith Felton, who runs the human services program at the college, said the state Board of Regents for Higher Education has encouraged colleges to help their communities fight food insecurity. Felton said the call was specifically intended to address the population known as “ALICE” — asset limited, income constrained and employed — who are living above the poverty line but below a cost-of-living income level.”We know we have many students who are part of the ALICE population, and we have students who are at the poverty level,” Felton said. “We have already seen evidence of [the program] touching lives.”
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