‘Our goal is to make sure no student goes hungry at Medgar Evers College’ — New partnership will feed students every Wednesday

Video by: Toshel Goffe, Brooklyn Recovery Corps intern in the Office of Communications; contributions from Mali Gibbs and Maritza Argueta

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By David Gil de Rubio  |  dgilderubio@mec.cuny.edu

Food is both a necessity and fundamental human right that has long been recognized by the Medgar Evers College Transition Academy as being a key to success for the school community. 

A hungry student is one who can lose focus and drive. 

And while the Cougar Food Pantry has made strides in addressing these nutritional needs, the pivot is the recent partnership the Transition Academy made with the nonprofit World Food Movement (WFM), the first New York school to partner with this international organization, while the academy also launched the TA Café on the second floor of the Carroll Street Building.

The WFM is a school lunch feeding program that launched in the year 2000 under the name Akshaya Patra Foundation and humbly started out serving just more than 1,000 children daily in India. A quarter of a century later, that number is now a robust 2.2 million children every day. 

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Having expanded to the United States in April 2025 under the name WFM, the goals are the same. In a collaboration that was solidified shortly before summer 2025, the agreement with Medgar Evers College means that WFM will be on campus at the Cougar Pantry in the second floor of the S-Building every Wednesday from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

With the program launching on September 17, an estimated 150 students enjoyed a hot, fresh-cooked vegetarian meal — a number that both parties believe will be replicated on a weekly basis, with hopes that the numbers will rise. 

For Transition Academy founder, Dr. Waleek Boone, it’s the latest salvo in ensuring some semblance of security for every Medgar Evers College student. 

“It’s another resource for our students,” Boone said. “As we know, the price of food and meals are going up. If we can help students to save, that’s our intention of what we want to do here. It’s a real game-changer. It’s vegetarian. We provide a list of ingredients so they know what’s in the food, making sure that it meets everyone’s dietary needs and no one is allergic to what we’re serving. 

“Our goal is to make sure no student goes hungry at Medgar Evers College.”

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On hand for the inaugural event was Shauklambara Dasa, president of the World Food Movement New Jersey/New York chapter. He was quick to point out how both organizations’ end-goals lined up with this partnership.

“Our goal is to provide hot, nutritious vegetarian meals to students where there is need,” he said. “This latest focus includes addressing the needs of the food-insecure population in New York and New Jersey.”

The partnership with Medgar Eves College is one Naveena Neerada Dasa, Executive Director- Strategy & International Relations for The Akshaya Patra Foundation, felt was a logical way to go with, particularly given how his organization has started expanding its reach into the United States. 

“I’m working with a number of groups in New York City that are dedicated to serving students,” he said. “The hardest to feed are campus students, so they can do better in their academics and healthy nation building. What I learned is Medgar Evers College is a great school with great students and that’s when we thought we had to come here and start feeding them, so that’s why we’re here.”

The hot meals from WFM are available to all CUNY students with IDs.

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The second part of Transition Academy addressing food insecurity for students was the recent opening of the TA Café. Completely self-funded and staffed by Transition Academy volunteers, the café is located in the Carroll Street building and is open Monday through Thursday, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. 

Available to Medgar Evers College students only, the services provided by the TA Café are one more way Dr. Boone sees the Transition Academy making the journey through higher education a little easier for the Medgar Evers College student body. 

“The idea for this came from the interns and myself because we understand that prices are going up for food,” Boone said. 

“Coffee, tea—if we can provide those resources for our students, they won’t have to miss classes or be late to them. They can pick up that coffee, tea or hot chocolate up here and then head to class. That’s the goal. Students can also get prepared and microwavable meals. We’re going to have breakfast stuff they can pop in and get as well. 

“That’s one more way the students’ needs are met.”