PCC Student Activist

When Erika Summers returned to Pasadena City College to finish her Associate’s Degree, she had no idea that she would be called upon to represent PCC students on the national level.

Erika is a student, single mother, and now activist for Pasadena City College students, having recently represented PCC students at a press conference held by Congressman Adam Schiff, to bring awareness to the issue of food insecurities on community college campuses.

Erika first attended PCC right out of high school.  At the time, she says, “I didn’t even know about the services that PCC had to offer, I just went to class and went back home.  But now that I have returned to finish my degree as an adult with a teen-aged daughter, I have financial needs that I am concerned about.  It was great to learn that PCC really cares about its students.”

Having been in the workforce full-time, Erika sustained an injury that caused her to lose her job.  Since she wasn’t working, she decided to return to PCC and finish what she started:  her Associate’s Degree in Child Development.  “I was working in child development.  But, when I got injured, I could no longer keep that job.  I wanted to move into the administrative side of child development or education, so I knew I needed to finish my education.”

Returning to college and balancing life with studying and being a parent made things financially difficult.  Paying rent, bills and even buying groceries was, at times, impossible. “I applied for the CalWorks program and that gave me the opportunity to become a student worker at PCC.  I learned about support services like the Rapid Response program for emergency needs and the Lancer Pantry.” 

Erika is not alone.  In fact, the #REALCOLLEGE Survey, the nation’s largest annual assessment of basic needs, conducted on 57 California community college campuses, reports that 50% of their respondents were food insecure in the prior 30 days and 60% were housing insecure in the previous year. 19% of respondents reported they were homeless in the previous year.   Specifically, within Los Angeles and Orange counties, 54% of respondents reported food insecurities and 18% reported homelessness.

To reverse this growing trend, Pasadena City College opened its Lancer Pantry in the spring of 2016.

Currently, the PCC Pantry provides over 700 free meals per week.  Many of the pantry patrons take food home to their families, stretching the impact to over 2500 people receiving meals from the pantry each week. Lancer Pantry offers non-perishables (canned goods, dry goods), meat, poultry, fresh produce, hygiene products and a limited assortment of school supplies.   Once a month, the Mobile Food Truck visits the PCC campus and students can load up a grocery bag for free, no questions asked.

Recently, Lancer Pantry expanded its services and will be collecting unused food from meetings and conferences on campus and offering it to students and families, giving students a meal that they can eat right now.  The need grows each week and now Lancer Pantry needs a larger space and more refrigeration. 

When Erika’s CalWORKs hours were reduced to 10 hours per week, she made her first visit to Lancer Pantry.  “It’s one thing to wonder what you’re going to eat.  It’s totally different to wonder how you’re going to eat,” explained Erika.  Her ability to articulate the plight of so many students with food insecurities made her an easy choice to speak on behalf of PCC students at the Foundation’s annual dinner last year,” said Bobbi Abram, the Foundation’s Executive Director.  “Erika has a way of making her experience feel real to those who listen to her.”  That’s why Erika was top of mind when PCC was asked to send a representative to a press conference sponsored by Congressman Adam Schiff to promote the Food for Thought Act. 

The Food for Thought Act would authorize the Food and Nutrition Service to make grants available for community college campuses to establish a free meal program for eligible students.  Currently, all community colleges rely heavily on their charitable foundation’s to provide programming and assistance for their food banks, such as Lancer Pantry.

 “I was always proud that I never needed public assistance, and I never thought I would need it.  But once I got injured, everything changed.  There is definitely a stigma.  People think when you need assistance, you are lazy or don’t want to work.  But at PCC, the CalWORKs program has been great, the professors really care about whether or not I am learning, and the Foundation Office provides scholarships.”

 “I don’t expect that I will always need to use Lancer Pantry,” says Erika.  “I will finish my degree in the next year and will go back to working full-time.  I don’t want to be a poster child for food insecurities.  I agreed to talk about my experience because I know first-hand, it’s hard.  But if I’m going to be in this position to represent students with these needs, I want to do more than just talk about it.”  Abram said, “When Erika said she wanted to do more than just talk about the issue, that was music to my ears and I immediately got Erika involved in the Giving Tuesday program to raise funds for Lancer Pantry.”  Abram added,”Erika is not just a talker, she’s a doer.  She’s an activist.”

 #GivingTuesday is a movement to create an international day of charitable giving.  It is celebrated on the Tuesday following the Thanksgiving holiday.  This year, it was on December 3, 2019.  On Giving Tuesday, the PCC Foundation did a social media campaign to raise funds for the Lancer Pantry’s expanding needs of additional space and refrigeration.  You can donate to help Lancer Pantry online at give.pasadena.edu.  Erika helped to raise funds that day. 

Top photo: Erika Summers (seventh from right) attends a civic event for Congressman Adam Schiff (fifth from left) along with Trustees Jim Osterling (far left) and Linda Wah (third from left) and PCC President, Erika Endrijonas (second from left)