Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation and World Central Kitchen provide resources and logistics to offer meals at three PCCD colleges
OAKLAND, CA – In response to dramatically increased food insecurity from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Peralta Community College District forged a partnership with two nonprofits – Oakland’s Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation and the World Central Kitchen – to provide thousands of meals to students at three of its four campus locations. The Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation underwrites the cost of the meals, while the World Central Kitchen helps provide food delivery and distribution logistics.
While the District’s four colleges, College of Alameda, Berkeley City College, Laney College and Merritt College, have long offered food assistance programs, the District recognized the need to quickly ramp up its capacity to address the growing need of its student population.
“It became clear early on that some people in our community might need additional support to weather this difficult time,” said Chancellor Dr. Regina Stanback Stroud. “Thanks to the Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation and the World Central Kitchen, we have been able to bring in the additional resources to keep our community fed. I’d like to give special thanks to Peralta Colleges Foundation Executive Director LaNiece Jones for helping make this new venture possible.”
Laney College and the College of Alameda launched their partnerships with both organizations this past April. Merritt College will launch its food pantry this coming Thursday (May 28), and discussions are currently underway for a partnership at the District’s Berkeley City College.
“We are so grateful to the Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation and the World Central Kitchen for the work they are doing to keep our community from going hungry,” said Peralta Colleges Foundation Executive Director LaNiece Jones. “I’d also like to thank all of the District staff at the colleges who are working hard every day to ensure these meals are distributed to students.”
According to Jose Corona, who heads Programs & Partnerships for Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, “The Peralta District does an amazing job of serving young adults, and we want to make sure that we do our part in supporting their students and families during this unprecedented time.”
The Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation was founded by Stephen and Ayesha Curry to end childhood and family hunger in Oakland, and provides critical funding to a variety of local organizations that provide food and distribution logistics, including the World Central Kitchen. Celebrity chef José Andrés founded World Central Kitchen in 2010 to provide meals in response to natural disasters, and has served 19 million meals since its founding.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf joined AT&T, Peralta Colleges and other community organizations at City Hall on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016, to kick off “September Giving,” a four week campaign during the month of September providing more than $400,000 to Oakland nonprofit organizations that are empowering students this “back-to-school” season. Mayor Schaaf and AT&T presented the first of four awardees, Peralta Colleges Foundation, with a $35,000 contribution to support Oakland students as part of the City of Oakland and Oakland Unified School District’s Oakland Promise initiative.
Over the years, the COA Auto Department has accumulated numerous 80’s and 90’s vehicles, donated by former students and Peralta faculty and staff. But we currently find ourselves short of post-2000 vehicles to use in our program. If you have a post-2000 vehicle which you’re thinking of donating to a charity or trading in on a new vehicle, we’d love to talk to you about donating the car to us, instead.
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