Pantry Nourishes Reedies tom humphrey
SEEDS czar Tara Sonali Miller and Roselyn Tovar ’18 stock the Reed Community Pantry.
Top Ramen. Beans. Scrounging. For decades, thrifty students have applied their ingenuity to the perennial predicament of a rumbling stomach and an empty wallet. Now, they are finally getting some backup from the Reed Community Pantry, which offers food and support to hungry Reedies. Food insecurity, defined as a lack of reliable access to food, isn’t a new problem. However, in the last three years, there’s been a surge of national attention to the issue in higher education, according to Tara Sonali Miller, program manager for Reed’s SEEDS (Students for Education, Empowerment, and Direct Service). Reed collaborates with 550 other institutions through the College and University Food Bank Alliance. “It’s not necessarily that food insecurity didn’t exist before,” Miller says. “It’s that more attention is finally being paid to it.” Reed’s Food Security Initiative (FSI) is a multi-layered response that includes a dedicated pantry stocked with food and supplies open to students, staff, and faculty; a working group of over a dozen students and staff; and an educational campaign about food insecurity. This year, the FSI plans to host workshops on
nutrition, cooking, and financial literacy. A recipe zine is also in the works to answer questions like: What’s in season? How do I store food items so they don’t spoil? Where can I get the foods I like and know how to prepare? How do I cook without water or a sink? The FSI’s goal is to offer resources that alleviate food insecurity at Reed so that every community member can live, learn, work, teach, and thrive. “Food is part of how we take care of each other,” Miller says. Located in the basement of the Gray Campus Center, the pantry itself is warm and friendly and stocked with staples such as pasta, soup, beans, and rice, a fridge of fresh and frozen food, gluten-free and vegan meals, and popular favorites like Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. You can also find snacks, toiletries, clean clothing, books, menstrual products, healthy microwaveable meals, spices, and vitamins. The pantry also accepts donations and seeks volunteers to join its mission of building community and keeping Reed students nourished—intellectually and bodily. —CLAIRE RUDY FOSTER ’06
Geselbracht Honor Goes to Glasfeld Prof. Arthur Glasfeld has been named the inaugural holder of the Margret Geselbracht Chair of Chemistry. Created with a $3 million gift by an anonymous donor, the chair memorializes the Prof. Glasfeld career of Prof. Maggie Ges elbrac ht, who passed away in 2014 after a hard-fought struggle against lymphoma. An inspiring teacher, committed mentor, and exceptional researcher, Prof. Prof. Geselbracht Geselbracht joined the chemistry department in 1993 as the only female chemist, and ultimately became the first woman to be tenured in the department. She touched many students’ lives through her courses and her research. She took her position as a role model seriously, and it is no accident that when she died, the department had graduated two successive classes that were majority women. “Maggie Geselbracht was the ultimate Reed professor,” says Glasfeld. “She was active nationally and locally in teaching and scholarship, absolutely committed to her students and their careers, and fully engaged in the college’s future. Holding a chair in Maggie’s name is an incredible honor and great reminder of all she meant to me and to the college as an inspirational colleague and friend. The fact that the position will allow increased staffing and greater team teaching in our first-year course fulfills one of Maggie’s highest priorities. This is a terrific gift all the way around.” Glasfeld earned his PhD from Harvard before coming to Reed in 1989. His expertise lies in structural biochemistry and he has advised 117 senior theses (and counting!). The anonymous gift will also add a new professor to the chemistry department. Maggie’s family has launched the Prof. Maggie Geselbracht Women in Chemistry Fund to reflect her passion of providing support to female chemists at Reed. Make a gift to the fund at giving.reed.edu.