Margaret Taylor Blalock Student Resource Center helps students facing hardships
Wendy Cox, Brandy Hill, Kim Rush, Dr. Leia Hill, and Dr. Tom Huebner, with recent
purchases to stock the Margaret Taylor Blalock Resource Center.
Katherine (not her real name) is a sophomore at Meridian Community College, juggling her world as a single mom and student.
She’s making sacrifices to make a better life for herself and her daughter. “I’ve always taken pride in being self-sufficient. But in the past year, I have run into several hardships and unable to buy food; sometimes there’s no money for gas or medicine, much less food,” she said.
With the costs of basic living ever rising, Katherine often skips meals to make ends meet.
Food insecurity, the lack of reliable access to enough food, affects 47 million Americans each year, including 14 million children. Among college students the numbers are even more staggering – national studies show that up to 50 percent struggle with food insecurity, which can impact their ability to stay in school and succeed academically.
However, thanks to the Margaret Taylor Blalock Student Resource Center, MCC students like Katherine and others are getting a helping hand to meet their basic needs.
The center is located on the ground floor of the L.O. Todd/Billy C. Beal Student Success Center and was created through an endowment funded by Chip and Lisa Taylor of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, through the MCC Foundation.
Taylor explained that his mom, Margaret Taylor Blalock, was a single parent who worked at MCC from 1968 to 1979. A dedicated counselor and compassionate mentor who touched the lives of countless students, Blalock saw helping others as her mission. "Mom was always there for her students, encouraging and helping them reach their educational goals, but also encouraging and counseling them in life," Taylor said. She passed away at the age of 95 three years ago.
Now open, the Margaret Taylor Blalock Student Resource Center is a fresh new welcoming space featuring two large rooms, a sitting area, a storage area, and a private setting for one-on-one, discrete conversations. Wendy Cox, MCC support services coordinator, oversees the center.
With a year in the making, the new facility was specially renovated to address the needs of students. Major purchases for the Margaret Taylor Blalock Student Resource Center will be made annually based on the endowment’s investment.
Students who visit fill out a slip of paper used internally for reporting purposes. “Once they check-in, they can get what they need,” Cox said. Their essential needs are as varied as the students themselves. There are men’s and women’s career and casual clothing, outfits for babies and children, laptops and texts that are available to be loaned, personal hygiene items, and some cleaning supplies and diapers and wipes that are at the ready.
The food, though, is a major draw. “Fruit goes quickly, and ready-to-eat meals do as well,” Cox said. “Students can come here between classes and get something to eat that’s easy – they’ll eat it on the go,” she added.
Donations to the center are welcomed, Cox noted, and there have been donations from on and off-campus organizations. “Former nursing students have come back and have donated scrubs. ‘I know they’ll need them,’ one donor told me,” Cox said.
“Donor students have reached out to their communities – churches, clubs to give to the center,” she said.
Katherine is grateful for the new Center. “Because of the generosity of the people of this campus, I was able to piece it together and get through. It’s a blessing and a huge testament to our community and MCC.”
To learn more, visit meridiancc.edu/support.