NOEP College Initiative

The Nutrition Outreach and Education Program is launching a special initiative that will focus on college students throughout New York State, titled the NOEP College Initiative.

There are special food stamp rules for college students, and currently there is advocacy underway to improve these rules for this very vulnerable and often food insecure population.

The Consortium has already taken a few important steps in creating a foundation for this initiative, such as:

1.) The Consortium presented at the fall conference for the NYS SUNY Student Assembly. Over 50 SUNY schools were represented and provided with a presentation on the value of NOEP and food stamps for their potentially eligible students.

2.) Beverly Hickman, our NOEP Coordinator from Rensselaer County, established a model collaboration with Hudson Valley Community College that now includes regular visits to the college campus, distributed outreach materials, and an office space to prescreen students.

3.) Two additional model collaborations are being established by NOEP Coordinators Sue Segelman in Monroe County and Ruth Hall in Herkimer County.

4.) The Consortium has been invited to present at the spring conference for the NYS SUNY Student Assembly to representatives from over 250 SUNY schools and programs statewide.

5.) NOEP is now collecting data to tally the number of college students that have been assisted through our program.

6.) A power point presentation designed specifically for college students can be located in the NOEP Section of the website under “presentations.”

Many of you have connected with a local college already, and we would like to incorporate your feedback in a “best practice” summary for other NOEPs to use for this initiative.