Chabot’s Classified Senate collected hundreds of granola bar donations in February and had planned to give them to students before the midterms in March; unfortunately, the distribution had to be postponed due to the campus closure.

The drive is being run by The Classified Senate Gives Back (CSGB), a workgroup of the Classified Senate that was created in August 2019.

“Our goal was to help combat hunger on campus and improve student success,” says CSGB co-chair Heather Hernandez.

The workgroup’s previous activities include co-hosting the Winter Gear Drive, participating in Laney College’s Basic Needs Summit, and recognizing classified professionals’ work anniversaries by launching the Anniversary Project.

As the college prepares for online-only summer classes, the granola bar distribution may be put on hold until the fall semester.

Hernandez suggests the project could resume during the first week of classes, “so we can help direct students, answer any questions and also hand out the bars.”

In the fall, the CSGB will participate in the Caring Campus Initiative by the Institute for Evidence-Based Change (IEBC).

Classified Senate Secretary Nicole Albrecht describes the goal of the initiative as “Simple efforts – including warmly greeting students with a smile, making a commitment to learning students’ names, or wearing a sticker/button saying ‘Ask Me.’”

Albrecht says these methods are proven to help students feel welcomed and are “cost effective; smiles do not cost anything.”