The Ram Pantry serves more than 900 students a day, Monday through Thursday, with free food on the Fresno City College campus.

The college also offers subsidized housing for students facing homelessness, serving as many as 300 students a year.

Community colleges across the state have different programs aimed at combating problems students face such as homelessness, food insecurity, transportation and even healthcare in some cases. To help and make the system less fragmented for students, lawmakers included $100 million in one-time funding, plus $30 million in annual funding, in the 2021-22 state budget for community colleges to establish a “basic needs center” on each campus by July 1, 2022.

Roughly a third of the state’s 115 community colleges missed the deadline to establish a brick-and-mortar basic needs center, Rebecca Ruan-O’Shaugnessy, a vice chancellor at the community college chancellor’s office, told a state Senate subcommittee last week.

The portion of the 2021-22 budget that set the deadline doesn’t specify any kind of penalty for missing it.

The Community College Chancellor’s Office can withhold money from colleges that fall behind, however. But Paul Feist, a vice chancellor with the office, said its “goal is to limit harm on the very students we are trying to help.”

Just because a college has missed the deadline for establishing a physical, centralized basic needs center doesn’t mean it isn’t providing those services.

All of California’s community colleges are now providing students with some kind of support for basic needs, according to a draft report from the chancellor’s office.

Different timelines

In the case of Fresno City College and its Ram Pantry, for instance, the basic needs center required by the state won’t be finished until 2024, said Lataria Hall, vice president of student services. But the college still finds ways to help its students.

Like roughly one in five community college students in California, Mateo Vargas was homeless last year. He had been staying with relatives during his first semester at Fresno City College until one day in December 2021, they told him they needed the room back. He tried sleeping on other people’s couches, only to be pushed out again.

In a last resort, he pulled up a months-old email from Fresno City College that mentioned a survey students could fill out if they were at risk of losing their housing. He filled it out on a Friday, doubtful that anyone would really respond. On a Monday, he got a call.

In a matter of hours, the college found him a heavily-subsidized apartment a few blocks away from campus, allowing him to pay $301 a month for a year while he gathered the savings and credit history to afford his own place.

When Fresno City College learned about the state dollars regarding basic needs centers, administrators decided to combine the money, roughly $1 million this year, with a federal grant. The plan is to renovate the existing food pantry to go “above and beyond,” offering additional services on-site such as mental health counseling and financial aid.

Hall said such a renovation wasn’t possible on the state’s initial timeline. Fresno City College received guidance from the chancellor’s office right before winter break in November 2021, leaving the school with a little more than 6 months for building construction.

“We were in a panic,” said Hall. “There was a lot of conversation within the state, like, ‘Where’s the guidelines? Where’s the criteria? Can we get more information?’ And we were in ongoing conversations with our state chancellor’s office, and they kept saying it’s coming but these are soft deadlines.”

The chancellor’s office denies ever saying the deadlines were “soft.” “We do not take liberties with creating deadlines that are different from those established in legislation,” Feist said.

Hiring impact

Other colleges that embarked on infrastructure projects faced similar challenges: Diablo Valley College in Contra Costa County will open its basic needs center “toward the end of 2023” because of delays regarding the construction of gender-inclusive bathrooms, said Brandy Howard, the college’s director of marketing. Cuesta College delayed the opening of its center to spring 2023 in part because of issues with paint, carpeting, and furniture.

Many community colleges across the state also missed the deadline to hire a full-time staff member in charge of basic needs. They cited procedural and administrative issues with human resources, or to avoid hiring hiccups, they repurposed existing staff roles, adding more responsibilities to already overtaxed employees.

Los Medanos College in Pittsburg hired its full-time position in October 2022, five months after the state deadline, though there was no gap in services to students because basic needs programs already existed.

Student Sofia Lopez picks out grocery items at the Basic Needs Program site at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg on May 4, 2023. Photo by Loren Elliott for CalMatters

In 2017, Los Medanos students partnered with private philanthropists to start a food pantry and clothing donation site, co-opting larger spaces over the years as the needs and supplies grew. Students continued to manage these services up until the advent of state funding allowed a full-time hire.

Now, the college’s basic needs center occupies a nondescript brown trailer at the corner of campus, but inside, it’s a buzz of activity.

On a spring day in April, students brought their friends to peruse through aisles filled with food, toiletries, and toiletries, and they lingered at the intake table to catch up with the staff, some of the same students who preceded the center’s full-time hire. On average, the center has served approximately 238 people a month since opening last August, according to the center’s staff.

In the Senate subcommittee hearing, Ruan-O’Shaugnessy said all of the remaining campuses will have their basic needs centers in place by next month, a year after the state’s deadline and a year before Fresno City College plans to complete its center.

“The report and timelines for completion are based on what colleges communicated to us previously,” Feist said about the discrepancy.

The discrepancy also depends on the definition of a basic needs center.

Associated Student Government President, Mateo Vargas stands on campus of Fresno City College on May 5, 2023. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

At the Ram Pantry, students at Fresno City College access an array of basic needs services, even though the official basic needs center opens next year.

The chancellor’s office report says the data collected so far only provides a glimpse at the outcomes because the basic needs centers are so new.

Its report only includes data from 60 colleges, which have collectively served more than 47,000 students. More than half of those students received assistance with food, the report says. Assistance with transportation and technology were the next most common services delivered.

About 4,000 students in the colleges surveyed for the report — less than 1% of total community college students — received help with housing, including eviction assistance, emergency funds for rent payments, or referrals to the housing authority.

Vargas was one of those students. He said his experience finding housing assistance was seamless, but added that other services, like mental health counseling, located on another end of campus, remain siloed for students like him. The new basic needs center in Fresno will have the counselors’ offices next to the food pantry when the building opens next year.

###

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Suey was born in 1938 to Stan and Becky Houseworth in Seville, Ohio. In 1948 Papa Stan loaded up the family, including her brother Terry’s imaginary friend, Dickie Ronnie, and moved to California. Kinda like the Beverly Hillbillies. She graduated eighth grade from Rio Dell Elementary and attended Fortuna High. That is until dad came in to her Aunt Bessie’s café and swept his little “blue-eyed darlin” (dad’s sarcastic nick-name for her) off her feet and married her. March 26 marked 70 years of marriage for mom and dad.

Mom was kind of like Cher or Madonna. No matter where you went with her you would hear the cries of “Suey.” Some random person would come up and give her a huge hug. Mostly former co-workers from St. Luke Manor, where she was kind of like the “mother superior.” They remembered her because she listened, encouraged, laughed and loved them and it stuck with them years later. Three weeks ago a nurse asked me “aren’t you Sue Carson’s daughter, I used to work at St. Luke’s” Yep, Madonna, Cher and Suey.

Mom never met a person she didn’t love. Well……..maybe a couple, but they would never have known it. She told me once, “You don’t have to love everyone, but you have to treat them like you do.” That is how she lived her life. Her church and relationship with Jesus were the second most important thing in her life, which I think breaks the First Commandment, but we’ll get to that later. Mom loved her church and especially her church family. Working with Dolores Gardner after she retired was one of her favorite times of life. She formed a fast friendship with Dolores that lasted long after they both retired from the church. She knew she was serving Jesus by serving others. She loved the years she taught in the Kindergarten Sabbath School class and being the lesson study supply clerk. But what she loved most was bringing her children, grand-children and great grand-children to church.

Mom loved her family more than anything in this world. It is impossible to put it in to words and do that love justice. Her family was everything. Three generations, soon to be a fourth, received the benefits of that love. Basically, her family was her only hobby. Her time was spent taking the kids on trips to the beach, Safari World, Brookings, Redding and especially Disneyland! She would do twelve days of Christmas for all the kids until there just became too many and she couldn’t remember what day she was on and what she had already given to which kid. Plus, dad would cut off her Christmas shopping money! She would plan “picnic on the floor” nights when blankets went on the floor, snacks abounded and a movie was played. Dad’s favorite quote (and gripe) was “when I die I wanna come back as one of your grandchildren.” We’re waiting, Dad!

Mom had the greatest sense of humor! The goal was always to tease and harass her until she was laughing so hard she had to run to the bathroom, her belly was hurting or sometimes she even had to pull the car over to finish laughing. It was just so easy to do. Humor came easily to her. Many people (and some family) did not understand our family’s sense of humor which some would say bordered on verbal abuse. But that is just how we roll here. Mom always said, “if my girls aren’t teasing, harassing and calling me names I know they’re mad at me.” And that was a two-way street my friends. Mom gave as good as she got. Sometimes she accidentally made us laugh by some of the crazy things she didn’t even realize she was saying. Like when “someone” accidentally shot a doe not a buck during hunting season and frantic conversations with words like game-warden, and fines were being thrown around. After listening to all this worry mom simply said, “just cut its head off and the game-warden won’t know if it’s male or female.” Think about it. You’ll get it! We call these kind of statements “Sueyisms”.

There are just so many people to thank. Kathy McWhorter. She loved working with you at St. Luke Manor. You too, teased and harassed her making you part of the family. When she came home from Napa, you came down to be with her. You held her hand, shared memories with us, laughed and cried. We know she sensed you and felt your love. Thank you for that.

Paulette Houseworth and Sharon Eglin. You guys came almost every day that mom was home. It didn’t matter to you that she didn’t know you were there. You sat in the quiet with her and just held her hand. You supported all of us as much as mom during that time. Those last days were made easier for us because you guys were there and helped bring some sense of normalcy and distraction during in a challenging time. Paulette I remember when Uncle Jim passed and we were sitting there and mom was saying it wasn’t fair that he went first. She was saying why couldn’t he stay and I be the one to go. You looked at her and said, “because God knew we would need you” and you were so right.

John Denny. When Aunt Bobby passed you and mom became so close. You two understood the same pain of losing a mother and a sister. You were bound together in your grief. You, Gracie, Natalie and Sarah meant so much to her. She swept you all up under her wings and tried to fill a void in your hearts . Thank you. We love you.

Now, the Two Tims. Whitchurch and Elwell. You guys were her sons. Tim Whitchurch you grew up with Connie and just naturally wrangled your way in to the family. You always teased her and made her laugh, and always made sure she had your home-made bread. You checked in on her faithfully and would do anything for her. The crazy things you got your self in to and all the things you always lost kept her quite entertained. We love you for it. Tim Elwell. You too were raised as part of our family. For 60 years you have been her son. You always teased her, made her laugh and checked in on her. At church you always made sure she drank plenty of water and saved her a place. Our pew will never be the same. Thank you and we love you.

Evon Bowling. You guys were babies raising babies when Dad and Amos introduced you. You two didn’t even like each other. But that changed and you spent the next seven decades helping each other collectively raise six kids that to this day consider one another brothers and sisters. Ron and Pam are mom’s children of the heart and our siblings. To Connie and I, you are our other mother. You were her sister, not just her best friend. Thank you for calling everyday when mom was home to check on not just her, but Connie and I as well. When I put the phone up to her ear that day and she heard your voice, she opened her eyes and tried to talk. She knew whose voice that was and wanted you to know it. We can not love you more for sticking with Suey through good and bad times and loving her forever.

We have to say thank you so much to Hospice of Humboldt. Your tender care, compassion and encouragement helped us give mom the best care we could. Thank your for patiently answering our questions and showing us the best way to keep mom comfortable. What you do is not easy, but we saw the heart you have for this kind of work in everyone who came.

Mom did not need to pound people over the head with a Bible to teach them about Jesus. She just lived the love of Christ. Like she said, “you don’t have to like everybody but you have to treat them like you love them.” She knew where her hope and strength came from and never stopped praying that all her friends and family would come to know the grace of Jesus.

In recent years one of mom and dad’s favorite past-times was to compare whose aches and pains, hearing and vision were the worst. It was a feverish competition of some sort. Not sure who was winning. If mom was falling behind, she never hesitated to play the Parkinson’s card. Were sure that they’re up there somewhere comparing whose recent ambulance rides, airplane ride and hospital stays were the worst. There is a Spanish saying that translates to “distance is just a measure of love’s reach.” The distance is unbearable, Mom, but we feel your love. Keep laughing and we’ll see you on the other side.

###

Elizabeth “Betty” McGuire passed away peacefully on April 25, 2023 in Eureka. Betty was born on October 12, 1929 in Glasgow, Scotland. Unfortunately, her mother, Agnes, died when Betty was only 12 years old. Betty lived with her oldest sister and family until she met and married her husband John McGuire on June 24, 1950. They were married for 70 years!

John worked as a Terrazzo mason throughout Scotland and England before being offered an opportunity to emigrate to Vancouver, Canada in 1956. Embracing this chance, John went to Canada to begin work and earned enough money to send for the passage of Betty and their two “wee” sons, John and Gerald. After a 4 months apart, Betty began her travels to Vancouver with the young boys on a long ocean passage from Liverpool, England to Quebec, Canada. She told stories about the trip where she and the boys slept in one small bunk and a kind steward would bring them occasional treats. Once they arrived in Quebec, they boarded a train for the trip to Vancouver through the plains of Manitoba and over the Canadian Rockies. During the 1950s this was quite a feat for a young woman alone with two small children.

After four years in British Colombia, the family which now included the youngest son Stephan, moved to Eureka in 1960. It took three cars to travel from Vancouver to Eureka, where they were able to fulfill their dream of owning a home. Settling into life in Humboldt County, Betty attended night school learning secretarial skills. In 1967 she became the administrative secretary for Zoe Barnum Continuation High School, from which she retired 23 years later. Betty truly enjoyed her job and the students. The students equally appreciated Betty and her no-nonsense but caring approach.

Upon retirement, Betty and John moved to a home they had previously built in Willow Creek. Betty loved golf and she and John became members of Willow Creek Golf Club. While living in Willow Creek she played golf daily and looked forward to the Women’s Club events, where she developed close friendships with many of the ladies. She took many golf trips to Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii, and throughout California. She and John were very fortunate to enjoy many years of golf, friendships, family and sunshine.

Betty was preceded in death by her husband, John Kennedy McGuire. She leaves behind sons John, wife Melody, Jerry, Stephan, wife Sherry, grandchildren Jason, Adam, Jake, Brittany, Stephan and Katie, great-grandchildren, Maya, Luke, Natalie, Avery, Lucy and brother-in-law Charlie McGuire, along with numerous nieces and nephews in Scotland and Canada.

A special thanks to the staff at Hospice and Timber Ridge for their compassionate care in the last few days of our mother’s life.

###

Marvin John Rogers, 74, of Eureka, passed away on April 24.

John was a loving father and grandfather whose hobbies were classic cars and motorcycles. He worked with his brother Ron for many years specializing in custom furniture. He then went on to being the number-one sales man at Harper Ford Motors. Lastly, he worked for Richard Miller Motorcycles, where he retired from.

John loved playing his guitar and singing karaoke. He even taught his grandchildren to play the guitar.

He is survived by his brother Ron, his three sisters, Kim, Christine, and Tamara, and his three sons, John T, Don, and Dan. John T’s partner Trish and his children John Jr., Damon, Britton, Lucy, and Aimee. Don’s children Levi, Sierra, and Tessa. Dan’s partner Heather and their children Dylan and Madison.

John loved his family, and he will be forever in their hearts. No public services are planned, and a private celebration of life will be observed by his family.

###

HUMBOLDT TODAY: Did you ever dream you’d get your Humboldt news delivered to you in the dead of night from the streets of the world’s oldest republic? Yes? Well, you’re an odd one.

This week LoCO has dispatched our very own John Kennedy O’Connor to the nation state of San Marino. New temporary location, same local news. Tune in! Ciao bella!

FURTHER READING:

• Cal Poly Humboldt Professor Leads First-of-its-Kind Study on Legacy Cannabis Genetics
• Up in Brookings, a Church Keeps Feeding the Hungry Despite the City’s Orders to Stop
• Cal Poly Humboldt to Hold Its First Regional Commencement Ceremony in Beverly Hills Next Monday

HUMBOLDT TODAY can be viewed on LoCO’s homepage each night starting at 6 p.m.

Want to LISTEN to HUMBOLDT TODAY? Subscribe to the podcast version here.

###

Some Redwood Coast Montessori High School students have been working hard to add a colorful mural to the side of the schools newest campus, which is in the former Ten Building (and Arcata Bowl before that) on K Street in Arcata. 

Learn more about the progress they’re making and about upcoming public paint days and the mural’s official unveiling event in the following press release from Cal Poly Humboldt:

On a busy corner in downtown Arcata, redwood trees are sprouting from the sidewalk, foxes cavort, and a blue whale soars overhead.

Redwood Coast Montessori High School students are in the middle of painting a huge new mural at the corner of 8th and K Street in Arcata. The mural celebrates the North Coast, and is a collaboration with Cal Poly Humboldt students and the community.

Sasha Lyth, an art instructor at Redwood Coast Montessori, initially envisioned decorating just one corner of the building’s wall. But after discussions with the building owner, the scope of the mural expanded to the full wall, 127 wide and about 20 feet tall.

Lyth and her student teacher, Caroline Voorhees, who’s earning a teaching credential through Humboldt, gathered ideas to create the mural.

“We’ve had an amazing amount of student involvement in designing the mural,” says Lyth. “We worked with the entire  school to come up with broad themes and what we wanted to reflect.”

They settled on local landmarks and flora and fauna of the North Coast, and students submitted a wide collection of drawings, which Lyth and Voorhees combined into one design for the wall.

Around the beginning of the year, three Art Education students from Humboldt connected with Lyth to complete their senior project—an eight-week curriculum with Redwood Coast Montessori students to build artistic concepts, skills, and help them complete the mural. With help from Art professor Jim Woglom and Art technician Jim Woodhead, the team projected the mural design onto the wall and students and families worked late into the night tracing the design.

After the completion of the curriculum, the rest of the Humboldt Art Education class began to visit the mural on painting days to help finish it before the end of the Redwood Coast Montessori semester in June. They’ve also had some community painting days, and are anticipating holding more before summer break.

The public is invited to join Redwood Montessori students and faculty for public paint days on Saturday, May 13 and Saturday, May 20.

A Mural Unveiling Party for Friday, June 9 during Arts Arcata (6-9 pm), that will include a student craft fair, the Los Giles Taco Truck, and music by the Redwood Coast Chorus and The Vanishing Pints.

From Cal Poly Humboldt:

Growing under redwood canopies and prohibition, legacy cannabis cultivators cross bred cultivars (plants bred for desirable traits) to create strains such as Blue Dream and Sour Diesel. Popularized in the underground market, these varieties are now some of the best selling strains on the legal market today.

One Cal Poly Humboldt professor is leading the first-of-its-kind study that aims to trace lineage, and preserve these genetics and the communities that steward them.

Corva

Dominic Corva, Sociology professor and Cannabis Studies program director, is the principal investigator (PI) on a research team that received nearly $2.7 million from the California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) to support the Legacy Cannabis Genetics: People and Their Plants study. The interdisciplinary, community-driven study aims to identify, document, and preserve California’s cannabis genetics, telling the stories of its legacy communities throughout the state, from Humboldt County to the Central Coast, and Southern California. 

The legacy community, according to the nonprofit research organization, the Origins Council, includes “cannabis producing regions […] that have established prolific small-scale cannabis cultivation and herbal medicine craft over the past two decades, or longer.”

Corva is conducting the research alongside co-PIs Genine Coleman, executive director of the Origins Council; Rachel Giraudo, Anthropology professor at CSU Northridge; Eleanor Kuntz of plant science company LeafWorks; and Todd Holmes, historian at the Oral History Center at UC Berkeley. Researchers are also partnering with the Cannabis Equity Policy Council, an organization that represents the interests of communities of color.  

As part of the community-based research model, the team will conduct town halls, include community-designed advisory boards, and put out calls and recommendations for interviews. They hope to conduct hundreds of interviews, and preserve hundreds of plants. Research outputs will include: herbariums, genomics data, a database of 90 oral history videos, and a series of educational webinars and publications. 

The two-year, scientific study will begin this year. Graduate and undergraduate students in the University’s new Cannabis Studies program—which launches this fall—will help conduct the research. This includes transcribing and coding interviews, and collecting archival data.

Corva describes his part of the team process as synthesizing the California legacy cannabis genetics and community stories through ethnographic and archival research, aided by student research assistants. 

“Community stories are a sustainable resource. They keep giving. They’re there in perpetuity to be learned from, drawn on, visited.”

“This research seeks to empower and protect California’s legacy cultivation communities who have overcome great adversity to innovate and steward one of the most important collections of cannabis genetic resources in the world,” says Coleman in a press release. 

Corva also hopes the research motivates other cannabis communities, or those with other agricultural commodities, to preserve their cultural history. These regions may include Thailand, Bangladesh, Morocco, Spain, Colombia, Afghanistan, Iran, Jamaica, and more. 

The project, he says, will also help inform the creation of appellations, like Champagne, which distinguishes products according to their geographical region of origin. 

“It’s a form of collective marketing rights and the ability to record your genetic variant,” he adds. “When federal legalization comes along, this will position Californian’s small producers really well for the national and global marketplace.”

For Corva, the project is an organic development of his more than 13 years of policy and equity assessment research, including co-directing the University’s Humboldt Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research, and co-founding the nonprofit organization, the Center for the Study of Cannabis and Social Policy.

In addition to this project, 15 other academic institutions also received funding from the DCC as part of a $20 million investment in the scientific research of cannabis. Other research topics include investigating the short and long term effects of THC; interactions between THC and CBD; the health of California’s cannabis industry, and more.