A survey was designed to determine the current state of insecurity regarding basic needs within Everett Community College. All participants were asked to confirm that they were 18 years or older and given a basic informed consent form to agree to. This survey asked a range of demographic questions as well as questions about general and financial well-being; therefore, a sensitive approach was taken to ensure the confidentiality of all participants.
The goal was to echo some questions that are used standardly for demographic reasons to determine if people from various marginalized backgrounds have a higher risk of basic needs insecurity. I found this to be too ambitious a task for the scope of this project and only aggregated by age. There were also some EvCC-specific questions. These questions included whether respondents had utilized the EvCC Food Pantry and how accessible they found assistance services to be within the college. If I could do this survey or work like this again, I would reword some of my questions for clarity purposes. I also made a statistical error when asking my questions about age, accidentally overlapping the categories. This was a big learning process, and there are always some regrets in word choice or question selection when creating a survey.
The goal was to have enough students to voluntarily fill out the survey to be statistically significant. I wanted a sample of 150 students. The survey ran for 11 days, from 5/ 5/25 to 5/16/25. A total of 100 students responded, below what I was hoping for and amounting to 1.6% of the student population, though still statistically significant.
Though the survey was anonymous, I had a question at the end that allowed students to share their emails if they chose to follow up with me for an interview about their personal experiences with basic needs insecurity. I had one anomaly in my data of a student who attended Edmonds Community College, who had applied for Everett Community College before deciding to attend Edmonds, and somehow received my survey through their Canvas announcement. It is unknown if there are others in my study who received the invite by mistake.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Jessie Ulmer from Workforce Funding about her role and some of the hurdles that she has to face as a Basic Needs Navigator for the school, and Justyce Wright about his role as Academic Administrator for the EvCC Food Pantry.
A canvas announcement was made on 5/5/25 to the entire student body, and then the survey was concluded for responses on 5/16/25. Students who participated declared to be over age 18 and were informed that they did not need to answer any questions that made them feel uncomfortable. My survey utilized a Google Form template and data generated by Google Sheets software. Dr. Christina Sampson assisted me in distributing the survey throughout the Canvas announcement system.
Survey Questions
I asked general questions about demographics to understand my participants better, followed by questions about general basic needs insecurity.
I asked about the age, race, sex, and gender of participants to determine if there were differing outcomes for different groups.
I asked if students had dependents.
I asked if they were first-generation college students.
I asked, whether they had been unaccompanied minors or in foster care under the age of 18.
I asked, Are you homeless, or have you experienced homelessness, since beginning college?
Have you stayed with a friend or family member for an extended period of time, due to financial circumstances, since entering college?
Have you been unsure where you will sleep since starting at EvCC?
In the past 6 months, have you used SNAP benefits?
In the past 6 months, have you had to forgo food due to other expenses such as rent or utility bills?
On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the least satisfied and 5 being the most satisfied, describe how you feel regarding your ability to afford nutritious meals within the last month.
If you have experienced basic needs shortages, such as inability to pay for housing or food, while attending EvCC, has this negatively impacted your mental wellbeing?
In the past 6 months, have you underpaid or been behind on your rent or housing payment?
Have you at any point had to leave school due to financial concerns for basic needs such as food or housing?
On a scale of 1-5, 1 being least affected and 5 being most affected, rate how much your basic needs, such as food and shelter, have affected your ability to participate in postsecondary education.
Have you used the EvCC Food Pantry?
On a scale of 1-5, how accessible do you feel campus resources are for meeting the basic needs of students?
I interviewed Jessie Ulmer about her role as a Basic Needs Navigator for Workforce Funding. We discussed the efforts that Everett Community College strives towards equitable outcomes for its students with the resources that it has. According to her, "my biggest requests that I get are for housing. Yeah, the real only housing resource in the community is 211. There are a couple of shelters that you can call without going through 211, which is a nice resource, but it's kind of a dehumanizing experience. So, one that I know, I think you can call the mission, and you can call the interfaith family shelter, which also has a path to the housing program. So, if someone's in their car, they have a safe place to park and some resources to sort of move through that transition."
Unfortunately, EvCC can't do much to assist with housing. The biggest stopgap that exists for these students is the Emergency Grant, which can be applied in the case of a sudden or unexpected financial emergency that would affect their enrollment. Said Jessie about the Emergency Grant Fund, "You and I and hopefully any other compassionate person know that just not having money for basic needs is an emergency. According to the grant, there has to be a reason that you don't have money. So it has to be, I can't pay my rent because my car broke down. I lost my job. I had an unexpected medical cost. So part of my job is to send those follow-up emails and say, hey, and try and get more of a well-rounded answer. Homelessness is always considered an emergency. Typically, we are able to consider helping students move into housing if they have a housing plan." However, these grants have limits, and students' needs often exceed the budget, so these funds can be depleted pretty early each term.
We discussed the services that the school provides at length. She told me that the school was the recipient of a "grant that we were lucky enough to get, which is called the free and reduced meal pilot grant, and it was awarded to three colleges. So we're very lucky that we got it. And it is a $600,000 grant over three years that works to get food for food-insecure students, particularly those interested in getting food on campus. So, we have the community part where people can apply once a quarter and then pick up once a month of that quarter, gift cards for a local cafe." The local cafe in question is called Kindred Kitchen, which is run by an organization called HopeWorks. HopeWorks is an organization that has philanthropic aims and runs a job training program for disenfranchised workers. The program to fight hunger on campus has helped many students, including me. Said one survey respondent, “I have received resources (Kindred Kitchen, BFET program), these resources have provided me with funds for my books and meals after school, therefore I feel these programs have enhanced my success at EvCC.”
We also discussed the basic needs vending machine, which resides beside the Student Life office in the Parks Student Union. Said Jessie, "It has like basic needs, things like toothpaste, toothbrush, deodorant. It also has Narcan and contraceptives, and things like that. Everything is either free or at cost. I think the Narcan is free, and everything else is super cheap. It does only take cash, but there is an ATM on campus, so feasibly students can access that."
I interviewed Justyce Wright about his role as an Academic Administrator overseeing the EvCC Food Pantry program. Said Justice about the funding for the EvCC Food Pantry, "EvCC food pantry is funded through our college's foundation. So there are a few different ways for them to solicit donations somehow, or on occasion, we will get a grant, or staff and faculty have the option to put a small portion of their paycheck into that account, and then it's managed entirely through the foundation." As for where the food comes from, "we've got a few different ways that we get food. There are donation bins, like across campus, where people can donate food, or we will, on occasion, purchase food if we need to, from either the grocery store, or we get bread from the Franz bakery. But the vast majority of our food comes from the Volunteers of America up the street, we pick up four to 500 pounds of food a week, okay? And we go through about four to 500 pounds of food a week, if not more than that. That's where the vast majority of the food in the food pantry comes from."
When I asked if he had faced any administrative hurdles, he replied, "I think I don't know if it's an administrative hurdle, so much as that the usage of the food pantry has expanded significantly this year." He showed me data that tracked the exponential growth of Pantry traffic, "So this is like a 60% increase quarter to quarter, year to year. This is like an 80-something percent increase year to year. And so, it's not about administrative hurdles so much as it's about capacity, capacity, and how do you scale capacity in a space that's small with limited staffing that's fair?"
The current space for the EvCC Food Pantry is in the Whitehorse building on campus in room 290, right across from the Clipper office. The room is small, cramped, and not easy to find. Plans are currently in the works to move the Pantry to the Student Union and create a benefits hub there. Said Justyce about the move, "It makes more sense than its current place, which is an academic building, primarily. Two, there is space available in the Student Union, and not necessarily in other spaces on campus. And three, there is a certain level of visibility in the student union that is good and bad. And the other resources on campus are in the Student Union. So, for example, our Workforce Funding department, with our benefit navigators, they do emergency funding, that kind of thing, they're in the Student Union, makes it more of a one-stop shop, right?" Another benefit of the move is that the Pantry will have room to expand. "The new food pantry space is going to be about twice the size, a little bit bigger, and it'll have an industrial fridge and freezer in that space. Both were even already purchased and are here on campus, and they will move into that space."
