By Victor Freeman
The Scene staff
The Student Advocacy and Resource Center on campus provides free groceries, clothing, and other help for students in need, but many don’t even know it exists.
Fine arts major Yusuf Ross, 27, has been attending classes at Forest Park for two years. But it wasn’t until last semester that he began taking advantage of SARC services.
“SARC is great, but it’s so underground,” he said recently, after stopping into the center to grab coffee and a snack.
“I’m a part-time college student, and I work on the side to support my means and my household. Sometimes funds get low, and you don’t have enough to get a meal before your class starts.”
SARC is a districtwide program of St. Louis Community College with locations on each of its campuses.
The Forest Park location is SC-256, just to the right of advising offices on the second floor of the Student Center. Hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays and 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Fridays.
Students simply sign in using their student IDs to visit the center’s Archers Market, Clothes Closet and Family Resource Center.
The Archers Market stocks canned goods, snacks, coffee and other groceries and even has a fridge with microwavable meals and other frozen items. In back are toiletries, personal-hygiene items and children’s supplies.
The Clothes Closet has racks of casual and business clothes and shoes donated by students, faculty and staff. That includes suits and dresses that could be worn for job interviews, as well as clothes and shoes for children.
The center also contains offices for staff members who can help with other challenges and needs. For example, they manage an emergency fund that provides cash assistance to students who are dealing with crisis.
“I look at it as a blessing,” said Synthia Robinson, 59, a human services major who works for SARC. “(The goal is) to provide for those less fortunate. You never know who needs help.”
Robinson has been known to approach students at vending machines, recognizing that they don’t have much money.
“I’ll say, ‘Why are you buying a snack when you can come to SARC and get a meal?’” she said. “And they ask, ‘Is it free?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s free!’ And they’re like, ‘How long have you been doing this?’
“Half the students don’t even know about SARC” Robinson added.
Ross and Robinson may be right. The Scene randomly asked 10 students on campus about SARC and only four were familiar with the program.