UMass Boston’s team raised $4,170 for U-ACCESS at the Three Squares New England Ride for Food charity bike ride Oct. 5.
The team this year comprised Adán Colon-Carmona, Lynnell Thomas, Nichola Hill, Jonathan Frankel, Gilbert Kayanja and Nicole Carmona Martinez. This year marked the first without professor Rick Kesseli, who founded the team six years ago and died of cancer in February. Last year, the team raised approximately $7,000.
The money raised goes toward U-ACCESS’s grab-and-go and snack program, which is funded entirely through donations, according U-ACCESS Director Cara Cogliano. ”That money goes towards buying snacks, frozen meals, sometimes fresh produce, yogurt, cheese sticks,” she said.
The grab-and-go program complements the office’s food pantry, which provides foods that students can take home to cook, by providing food that students can eat on campus. “We really recognize that students are coming to our campus hungry, often from public school systems that were providing a free breakfast and lunch and feeding them during the school day, and once they transition to college, they don’t have that anymore,” she said.
Cogliano said that students who need help should not be afraid to go to U-ACCESS. “It bums me out when it’s year three and a half and you’re graduating that you just learned of us,” she said. “We’re a little piece of the pie, but I think we can be the most impactful on whether a student is successful in their academic journey,” Cogliano said.
In the 2024-25 academic year, U-ACCESS assisted 2,098 students, according to Cogliano. In an average day, 120-130 students go to U-ACCESS for food.
About 49% of students entering UMass Boston in 2017 — the most recent year for which data is available in the 2023-24 Common Data Set — received a Pell Grant. “Federal Pell Grants usually are awarded only to undergraduate students who display exceptional financial need,” the U.S. Department of Education wrote on the Federal Student Aid website.
U-ACCESS also helped approximately 35 students enroll for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. The SNAP program may be at risk since President Donald Trump declined to use contingency funds to support the program amid the federal government shutdown that began Oct. 1.
In a statement, Gov. Maura Healey called on Trump to restore SNAP funding. “He is forcing millions of people — children, seniors, veterans, people with disabilities — into hunger, raising costs and hurting local farmers and businesses. He is choosing to do this,” Healey said.
“One of the reasons I love this state is that the people of Massachusetts always step up to help neighbors in need. I encourage anyone with the means to do so to support our incredible philanthropic organizations, like United Way, and food banks who are doing heroic work to make sure that no one goes hungry,” Healey said.
Cogliano said U-ACCESS has not seen any funding cuts, but would benefit from additional staffing to assist students with more complex needs in addition to donated funds that go toward food programs directly.
Said Cogliano, “The increase in need is tremendous when lots of other areas of people’s lives are getting harder.… Donating to feeding a college student doesn’t mean that college student is going to need this support for the rest of their lives if we can get them through college.”
