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Whataburger, MCC-Penn Valley host ribbon cutting for on-campus resource room

Whataburger, MCC-Penn Valley partner
Posted at 9:10 PM, Jan 20, 2023
and last updated 2023-01-20 22:10:28-05

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Whataburger and Metropolitan Community College-Penn Valley hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday to celebrate the grand opening of a new resource room.

The on-campus, student-operated resource room will provide food, supplies and other necessities, all at no cost.

The opening of the resource room is a part of Whataburger’s community program, Feeding Student Success.

"One of (the) major tenets of our 'Feeding Student Success' program is to make sure that students are fed both in their bellies (and) in their minds as well," said Whataburger Community Experience Manager Allie Watters.

The journey towards its opening started back in 2019 when Whataburger partnered with the school and made a donation to get the room set up.

Campus President of MCC-Penn Valley Tyjaun Lee explained how integral the new Resource Room will be to students.

"This is going to be really important for our students because, on average, about 64% of our students are either food insecure or housing insecure," Lee said. "And so here on campus, now that we'll have the Resource Room, we will be able to provide them with the necessary food that they need in order to go home and feed their children or to have food that they need just to survive on their own."

Applications for the Whataburger Feeding Student Success Scholarship, which opened last December, are still open. The last day to apply is Feb. 28.