Madison Kollar / The Mossy Log
The Nest, a new designated community resource center for Lewis & Clark students in Roberts 112, opened on Mar. 10. The Equity, Inclusion and Justice Committee (EIJC) held the grand opening for the new space. The space was previously occupied by Maggie’s Café but remained vacant for almost three years after its closure. During that period, Roberts 112 was used intermittently for various purposes but remained empty throughout the majority of the year. The room served as the temporary Campus Living Office and later included vending machines and study space for students. It also served as a donation space for students to bring extra food, clothing, bedding, appliances and furniture at the end of the semester when moving out of their dorms.
Maggie’s Cafe was a beloved spot on the residential campus, serving beverages and quick meals into late hours of the night. After renovations of the Fowler Student Center opened the Trail Room and Marketplace for students, the college shared that they would shut down Maggie’s Cafe before the Fall 2022 semester due to “duplicate services” offered by the new renovations which would impose “additional costs on students.”
After its closure, students who experienced and loved Maggie’s were discontented with the substitutions for the cafe, both with shorter hours opening and a lack of space for students to socialize. Maggie’s had been the only established spot on campus where students could use their meal swipes past 10 p.m.
Naturally, rumors circulated about what would fill the space after the closure. Kai Emery ’25, one student part of the effort to create The Nest, reminisced on these different proposals.
“There were a lot of ideas floating around if it was going to be a gym or if it was going to be study spaces or a laundry facility,” he said.
Despite the hopes and desires of students, Maggie’s became an overlooked and often unnoticed part of the campus, especially for new students who never got to know what Maggie’s was like. That was until EIJC began its process of developing a new resource space for students.
EIJC is an Associated Student Body (ASB) committee that focuses on community needs and bridging the gap between inequities on campus. The committee offers emergency fund grants for students with financial burdens that lack the money to address them and runs the Food Pantry in Fowler.
EIJC had long received and recognized complaints about the inaccessibility of the Food Pantry, which was only open from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays. Izz Lamola ’25, vice chair of EIJC and co-founder of The Nest, shared how this became an opportunity for a new resource center.
“We need to build a place for the food pantry that’s not so hidden, (and) make it a bigger thing … it just didn’t seem accessible. So that is what started (The Nest),” they said.
Lamola first began the process of starting The Nest as a relocation project for the Food Pantry. They inquired about moving it into a better space, such as the game room in Fowler, until settling on the unused Roberts 112. With it’s location on the residential campus, Lamola saw an opportunity to centralize all free resources into a space easily accessible to all students. Thus, their project goal developed from a simple relocation to bringing a multitude of resources across campus to one area.
In an EIJC meeting, Lamola shared their vision for a community resource center with the committee and encouraged anyone interested to help make it a reality. Lamola’s vision centered around preventing inequity, rather than taking reactive measures to adress it. Rain Damon-Espinas ’28 was inspired to get involved with The Nest at the EIJC meeting.
“It’s best to do preventative measures. I think emphasizing the preventative measure, such as the resource center and making sure that people have food so they don’t have to ask … mak(ing) all these resources be in one central space, accessible to the people,” Damon-Espinas said.
Gaby Herrmann, a case manager at LC, helps students find appropriate resources for a variety of needs, such as housing, food, mental health and general financial concerns. She shared that food insecurity was a large concern on campus, especially with most students only having 2 swipes a day. Although the Pio regularly runs to Fred Meyer’s on Barbur, students at LC without vehicles have limited access and transportation to budget grocery stores such as Winco or Grocery Outlet. Treks to more affordable grocery stores can take over an hour by the TriMet.
“There’s a bit of a gap between what they might need to eat versus what they have access to … (especially) during student breaks,” Herrmann said.
EIJC encountered obstacles while working to establish The Nest. Last year, Emery tried to relocate the Reuse Room to a more accessible location. He explained that the exhaustive bureaucracy and lack of power students have to go through to get something approved was discouraging and led to no change happening.
“I think it can be quite easy for students to just get shut down because we don’t have any type of standing,” Emery said.
Lamola credited their role as a Resident Advisor informing their ideas for how to make Roberts 112 an accessible space for students.
“I learned how to contact them and how to leverage my position as an RA to talk to the director of Campus Living,” they said.
The Nest is not just a food pantry. It offers a one-stop shop for other resources, including the Health Center’s over-the-counter medication samples, a new space for the Reuse Room, Health Promotion and Wellness’ safe drug use supplies, FSU’s safe sex supplies and menstrual products, SEED’s Generation Conscious detergent Sheets and eco-friendly personal care items, a communal library of academic resources and textbooks and the Harm Reduction Club’s CPR face shields and fentanyl test strips.
During their grand opening, students and staff discussed The Nest’s vision and mission and the problems the LC community faces. Organizers provided discussion questions and general facts about food insecurity to help students conceptualize how prevalent the issue is, even on a campus where students are supposed to have direct and easy access to food.
Any student who wants to get involved with The Nest can reach out to EIJC at asbequity@lclark.edu, or get involved with similar missions, such as the new Housing and Food Insecurity Cohort through the Center for Social Change.
The Nest is open on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. All on-campus students can access the area with their ID card. Off-campus students can also access this space but must go to the Campus Living office to get a special access card. Students are encouraged to use the space and resources provided by the Nest and to also contribute to the space by donating unused shelf foods, sharing zines or anything else that can be used by the community. EIJC asks that students do their part in keeping the space clean and organized.
“I want it to be a space for whatever people want to put in there, as long as it’s giving back to the community,” Lamola said.
About the Author
