Unity & Compassion

For many, college can mean the beginning of independence. Independence meaning the start of making your own decisions. It may mean your first time buying textbooks, or paying tuition, or paying for where you sleep at night. Independence meaning you have your responsibilities and difficulties that are all yours to handle. With Polk State College’s student efforts, independence does not mean you are alone. In fact, two particular and very special initiatives at the school were created specifically to let students know they have a helping hand.

My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) and Polk State Pantry (PSP) are initiatives that stand for unity and compassion. They offer food assistance and toiletries to the students at Polk State, and MBK also offers emergency assistance funds. Both hatched from tiny ideas with small hopes that now can count several years of growth and disadvantages relieved. Both initiatives thrive as they are each run by caring, detailed, passionate, and determined leaders. For MBK, that is Melvin Thompson, and for PSP, that is Kim DeRonda. While both leads wear many titles and have multiple roles at Polk State, their intentions have a singular aspiration, to support the overall welfare of their students.

“We had students that were coming to class without the resources to have their bellies full and feel ready to go about their day in a positive way. Or maybe having to focus on meeting basic needs, which of course does not prepare them to be on track and focused in the classroom if they’re worried about those types of things as well.” shares DeRonda. Out of this sentiment of concern stemmed the pilots of MBK and PSP.

“We don’t want to be a Band-Aid. We want to make sure, if we’re able to help you, you’re able to sustain it.” It’s here where Thompson, who has been with Polk State since 2006, started as a TRIO advisor and was recently named the new Director of Student Development/Title IX Coordinator, reveals the social and emotional assistance of the program. Thompson and his staff lead with compassion as they keep their purpose to be the safety net for the students. MBK opens up a literal space in the Student Center where resources of all kinds can be found. “The staff is so student-focused … about student success, retention … basically we’re the living room of the campus. We want students to enjoy [being here] because we believe engaged students are retained students. Just by sitting, talking, and interacting with us, they open up. Maybe it’s financial aid questions, maybe it’s advising issues … where we can make a call or direct them to the forms that need to be filled out … but just from being here, [the students] learn about the resources of MBK and the other resources that we know.”

If MBK is the “Living Room” of Polk State, the living room being the main congregation of home, the center of comfort, then naturally the Pantry would be the kitchen, the place of sustenance.

Polk State Pantry is an example of learning about an issue and immediately acting to address it. With the help of their volunteers and donors, they provide a private space where students can acquire basic goods. “Everything from a granola bar and a bottle of water, to pantry essentials that somebody can go home with and make spaghetti for dinner, or staples that would hold a family together …” DeRonda explains what necessities and snacks can be found in the Pantry and adds that they also house personal hygiene items, some of which come from her separate project called The Lakeland Pad Party, that collects menstrual cycle related supplies. DeRonda, as the Testing & Tutoring Manager at Polk State and the Librarian, reflects, “A small group of us decided to find a space on campus … where we would get some donations and see what happens. And it bloomed from there.”

“If you give people a chance to do something great, they really will do it,” states DeRonda, who is a mirror of what she believes in for humanity. She began this mission in 2017 after learning about food insecurities that students at higher institutions face. That mission was to ensure that being hungry would not be the reason for a student to struggle through their day. “The number of people who volunteer their time to sit in the pantry so a student can come in and get something, the number of people who would grab an extra bag of groceries and bring them in, employees of the college, other students, many of the things that got us started, were simply because somebody else thought ‘you know what, I have extra, let me make sure someone else has enough,’” she continued. Her campusbased initiative wants to minimize the often silent but harmful problems like hunger or troubled hygiene to clear a path for focus and scholastic success.

Success in a student’s college tenure is what motivates DeRonda, Thompson, and all of their staff and/or volunteers. They provide help without stigma or shame, having most amenities openly available and other relief that can be privately sought. PSP handles food and hygiene while MBK handles a range of aid from covering fees for outside exams to their free rental cap and gown closet, grocery bundles & specialized orders (where students may request items according to their dietary restrictions and preferences), gas money, funds for an Uber, or even covering rent under certain circumstances.

“I would say a highlight is when we are able to help students get over the hump. We had a couple of students who weren’t eligible for financial aid, and it was too late for them to get any other type of funds. We were able to come in and pitch in and get them to graduate [by paying] for their last remaining classes,” explains Thompson. For DeRonda, a highlight and wish is to be able to continue their work, “One of the things that I love, and I want us to be able to maintain, is that we don’t ask for any verification from the students, we don’t document what they take, we don’t limit how often they can come, and I would just love whatever stars have to align so that we can continue [to do business in that way] that would be my ideal end goal. We’re able to keep the shelves stocked, able to open the doors, and let students know if someone needs to come literally every day, they can do that.”

There will always be space to share the story of community. The story of the collective that means to serve others, to care for, uplift and fill the gaps for those who are in need. The story that lends a nudge for even more people to wake up their humanity and help a cause. The feel good stories. The impactful stories. Stories that continue to be written by those that carry on ambitions like that of My Brother’s Keeper and Polk State’s Pantry.

If you’d like to donate to these initiatives visit: foundation.polk.edu/donate-now.