NASPA Online Learning Community

Students are Hungry: Addressing Food Insecurity on Arkansas 2-Year College Campuses

Students are Hungry: Addressing Food Insecurity on Arkansas 2-Year College Campuses

Recorded On: 02/28/2024

Dr. Ricky Tompkins

Director of the Center for Student Success

Arkansas Community Colleges

Dr. Ricky Tompkins, Director of the Center for Student Success for Arkansas Community Colleges, works to improve access and opportunities for students working with the twenty-two Arkansas two-year colleges and national organizations. Before joining Arkansas Community Colleges in 2022, he served for over 10 years as Vice President for Learning and Chief Academic Officer at NorthWest Arkansas Community College, where he helped students achieve their dreams in building better lives for themselves and their families.

 
Dr. Tompkins has taught on the university level, published in academic and professional journals, and presented at higher education meetings and conferences across the United States. He was a 2007 and 2009 Bellwether Award Finalist for Community College innovation, graduate of the Executive Leadership Institute sponsored by the League for Innovation in the Community College, and completed Arkansas Leader, a Command School sponsored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Criminal Justice Institute of the University of Arkansas System.

 
He holds a Doctor of Education in Higher Education from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, a Master of Liberal Arts from Henderson State University, and a Bachelor of Arts from East Texas Baptist University.

Students are coming to our campuses with core issues that impact their learning including lack of basic needs. This webinar will discuss potential opportunities for meeting the basic needs of our students in a centralized system through a food pantry + model and the positive impact on student success. Four Arkansas colleges, supported by Arkansas Community Colleges and the ECMC Foundation, piloted a more comprehensive usage of the food pantry as a centralized location for accessing and learning about additional resources and services. There are several takeaways from the project that will be discussed in the webinar.

  • Students accessing the new food pantry model are 6 to 8 percentage points more likely than students not accessing the pantry to be enrolled one semester and one year later, and to earn a credential.
  • Low-income students, adult students, and students of color are more likely to access campus food pantries, driven by colleges’ targeted outreach efforts to key student groups.
  • The notable academic benefits of the new food pantry model are present for Pell recipients, for adults, and for students of color – with especially high proportional increases in credential attainment for students of color who access campus pantries.

Learning Outcomes:

  1. Participants will learn more about the comprehensive food pantry + model utilizing current resources including SNAP, TANF, and other available resources.
  2. Participants will learn about the pilot implementation of comprehensive food pantries at 4 Arkansas institutions and the positive academic results.
  3. Participants will become more familiar with the ASPEN led 2GEN approach to meeting the needs of whole families for academic success.

NASPA has been approved by the Higher Education Consortium for Student Affairs Certification to provide CE credit for Certified Student Affairs Educators (CSAEd). NASPA is solely responsible for all aspects of this program.

Guidelines for earning CE credit: 

1 CE is awarded for attending this live session. 

No partial credit will be rewarded. 

Participants must also complete the feedback survey in the Online Learning Community.

Credit is available for attending the live session and viewing the on-demand recording. 

To receive CSAEd credit, attendees must complete the Feedback Survey in the online event offering the certification. Once the survey is completed, your Certificate will be available in the event modules. The Certificate of Completion, which will show the event and credit earnings, is available for download and/or print from the event in your Online Learning Community.

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