The Rural Community College Alliance recently awarded the National Community Engagement Award to Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU)–Ruidoso Branch Community College for its Ruidoso Campus Connections program at the Annual Fall Conference Sept. 18-20 at SUNY Adirondack Community College in Queensbury, N.Y.
This award acknowledges exemplary community partnerships, community engagement, and outreach programs and initiatives that have had a significant influence upon institutional and student success and that demonstrate a commitment to excellence in connecting with our communities.
The ENMU-Ruidoso Campus Connections community development service program aims to create a climate of food security on campus through several systemic avenues: education and training, resource coordination, community partnerships and physical space for students, staff, and faculty to access food and prepare meals.
Through this program the Community Development Department creates “Campus Connections:” a community kitchen where students can access fresh food and prepare nutritious meals. With high rates of both food and housing insecurity in the college service area, providing a space where students can prepare food is critical for sustainably serving Ruidoso and the surrounding community.
Additionally, the college hosts weekly food preparation and nutrition classes. The classes focus on high-nutrition, low-cost meals and includes ingredients with weekly food distribution. To increase program awareness, reduce stigma and increase student accessibility to basic needs, the campus provides area resources to students along with developing a campus hunger task force and area partnerships with active groups including local food pantries and community gardens.
Through research collaboration with the New Mexico State-wide Basic Needs Projects, ENMU-Ruidoso students were found to experience food and housing insecurity at higher levels than the average New Mexico college student.
- 76% of Ruidoso students experience some level of food insecurity in the last 12 months, compared to 67% of the state student population.
- The intersection between food and housing insecurity is significant in fact, 64% of Ruidoso Campus respondents faced both food and housing insecurity concurrently, compared to 44% of average respondents of New Mexico colleges.
- Only 5% of the campus community experienced food insecurity with secure housing. Given this association, establishing space on campus for students to prepare and cook food is critical for program success.
The Ruidoso Campus Connections programming is spearheaded by Community Development and Grants Director Nicole DeLorenzo and Chief External Affairs Officer Robin DeMott.
ENMU-Ruidoso’s mission is to enhance the lives of students and the communities of Lincoln County and Mescalero N.M. ENMU-Ruidoso Branch Community College combines a traditional learning environment with 21st century instructional technology emphasizing liberal education, freedom of inquiry, cultural diversity and whole student life. Scholarships, cultural enrichment, excellence in teaching and enriched learning define the College’s community relationship and contributions.
The Rural Community College Alliance (RCCA) helps its member institutions serve the 89.3 million people who reside in rural America. The Alliance seeks to promote a more economically, culturally, and civically vibrant rural America through advocacy, convening, leveraging resources, and serving as a clearinghouse for innovative practice, policy, and research.
