Community Service Projects Opens Eyes, Opens Hearts at CCSU

The room filled with audible gasps as Dr. Beth Merenstein informed an incoming class of college students that 76.1 percent of New Britain school aged children are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. The first-year students were taking part in a new student orientation program at Central Connecticut State University.

Dr. Merenstein, Central’s Associate Vice President for Community Engagement and Experiential Learning, was taking the young people through a Kahoot, a trivia app where participants answer multiple-choice questions. Merenstein runs Central’s Center for Community Engagement and Social Research, which works to connect students, classes, clubs, and activities with organizations in New Britain.

The topic of the quiz was poverty statistics in the United States, Connecticut, and New Britain. The students were learning about the impact of poverty on the community, and, particularly, young people, before completing a service project to give back to the greater New Britain community. On two separate days, the students completed community service projects focused on hygiene products for low-income people. 

For the first project, students decorated boxes and filled them with feminine hygiene products, deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and soap. The packages went to a New Britain YWCA teen program.

For the second project, the students wrote letters and filled bags with general hygiene products, such as soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, hand sanitizer, and more. The bags were sent to the Friendship Service Center, Inc., a New Britain homeless shelter, community kitchen, and food pantry.

While decorating her box of feminine hygiene products, Juluisa Miranda of Waterbury said she really appreciated the project. Miranda will be a pre-nursing student at Central in the fall. She believes the students learned much about the impact of poverty on women. This included the fact that one in five young women miss school because they don’t have access to hygiene products.

“I think the project is very nice and collaborative,” Miranda said. “I’ve had that experience, and I think this will be really helpful for people.”

Miranda says she may get involved with the Center for Community Engagement and Social Research when she begins her first semester at the end of summer. For the last year, she has volunteered every Saturday at a soup kitchen in Waterbury. 

“I first did it because I needed community service hours (to graduate from high school),” she said. “Then I fell in love with the people there, so I still do it.”

On the day students filled bags for the Friendship Center, Dr. Merenstein shared more statistics.  Students were shocked to learn that on a given night in January in the past year, 2,662 students were homeless. People are considered homeless if they double up (couch surfing), live in a hotel or motel, stay in a shelter, or live on the street.

From 2021 to 2022 Merenstein said as many as 155 New Britain students were homeless. Of those, she said, the majority were in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade.

Justin Rua of Cheshire said the activity made him think.

“I didn’t realize just how much homelessness has grown over the years, especially in New Britain compared to the rest of the state,” he said.

Rua said he has never been involved in a community project before, but the event at orientation has him thinking about getting involved when he starts classes in the fall.

“I’m still trying to figure everything out, but it’s something to think about,” he said. “I can see why the campus cares about poverty a lot and want the students to get involved.”

For more information about the Center for Community Engagement and Social Research, visit www.ccsu.edu/communityengagement/.

This article was written by CCSU staff writer Sarah Kaufman.