Block Club Chicago reports: Kennedy-King College’s Statesmen Market Opens In Englewood With Free Groceries For Students

Sixty percent of students at Kennedy-King College identify as food insecure, according to a 2024 study. The expanded market will provide free, fresh food to students and their families.

When Tiara Davis entered the new Statesman Market at Kennedy-King College, she immediately turned around so she could re-enter and fully take in the redesigned pantry.

Davis, 32, is a student at the Englewood college studying computer science with a focus on data science. She’s also a caretaker for five people — her three children and two brothers she took guardianship of after her grandmother died last year, Davis said.

Davis depended on the college’s former food pantry to grab toiletries and food to feed her family, she said. The pantry operated in a classroom on the Englewood campus.

So when Davis walked into the Statesman Market — the college’s redesigned, expanded pantry that opened Tuesday in Englewood — and saw the space stocked high with groceries and goods, she was “taken aback and overwhelmed,” she said.

Officials at City Colleges of Chicago, Greater Chicago Food Depository, Knight Impact Partners and community leaders cut the ribbon on the renovated Statesmen Market at Kennedy-King College

Excerpt above. Read the full story in Block Club Chicago.

“Every human being learns better when they are not hungry or uncertain about where, how and when they are next going to eat,” said Becky Knight, founder and executive chair at Knight Impact Partners. “Eliminating that obstacle is transformational, and it allows students and their families to move from need and necessity to next steps and new horizons.”

Photo credits: C. Rodriguez/City Colleges of Chicago