By: Sophia von Seebach

The Grove Grocery is supporting student parents by hosting a baby shower drive during the month of February in hopes that people will donate baby items.

The University of Mississippi’s Work-Life Resources Program manager, Lynn Wilkins, is trying to even the playing field for the University’s student parents, and she has allies.

The University’s food bank, Grove Grocery, has been distributing food and groceries to its students, faculty and staff for nearly a decade. In December of 2021 Tina Truong, the student director of the Grove Grocery, received a donation but it was not food items. The donation contained items for babies.

“It was really weird because normally we never get donations for baby items,” said Truong. “We hadn’t thought about that demographic before.”

Wilkins said “we don’t know how many student parents we have because nowhere is there a place where students are asked directly.” While the exact figure per campus is unknown, student parents do not make up an insignificant demographic. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research more than one in five college students are parents.

“We started ordering a few boxes of baby food and a few boxes of baby wipes every two weeks, but they would run out really quickly,” said Truong. Wilkins, being the primary resource for student parents, then approached Truong with the idea of a month-long ‘baby shower’ drive in order to obtain more supplies for student parents.

“What I wanted to do was provide some tangible kinds of assistance to student parents who need that kind of support,” said Wilkins. 

According to a study conducted in 2020 by The Hope Center, 53% of student parents had faced food insecurity, 68% had faced housing insecurity and 17% were homeless in 2019. Wilkins said that “the point (of the drive) is to chip away at the burdens that are faced by student parents.” 

Lasherica Thornton, an alumna of the University of Mississippi and a student parent of two children, outlined the hardships of student parents. Student parents, like any other student, have classes to attend, but they also have children to care and pay for. “When you’re dealing with all of the things you deal with as a student parent, if you don’t have the money… it’s going to come down to a decision of ‘do I choose diapers, or do I choose baby food?’,” said Thornton. 

Kate Forster, the staff advisor for the Grove Grocery, said “we are always looking to explore more resources for these students because it can be very financially challenging.” According to the National University “over 88% of student parents have incomes at or below the poverty line,” and yet “over 44% of student parents work full time jobs.”

Thornton said the drive could be very beneficial and give aid to those who are in need. She said “if they’re able to get diapers, the baby food, the formula- it takes such a load off of those expensive and necessary things.” 

The access to these resources not only saves money and alleviates stress for student parents, but it also saves time. “When you’re able to get to as many of your resources while you’re already in one place it’s just better,” said Thornton. 

Of course, the so-called baby shower is only the first step towards providing tangible and significant resources for student parents. Currently, the university does not have many forms of aid available for students with children. however, according to Wilkins, her program is seeking to create more resources.

The Grove Grocery has several partnerships with various campus organizations, and now has one with the resource center for student parents. This month is the first baby shower drive, but many hope it will grow into a regular event. “I think if we land on a yearly, february, share-the-love baby shower drive that would be awesome. I would love to do that,” said Forster. 

Forster said that the Grove Grocery has also added a request form on their website, which will allow people to ask that certain items be ordered. 

“These are a group of people that we should be continuously supporting,” said Truong.

Wilson said “it can all work, we just need to discover those places where a little bit of support will make a lot of difference.”