CAB 135 might look like just another door on campus, but behind it lies a quiet revolution: Evergreen’s Basic Needs Center. It’s not just about handing out food—it’s about cultivating dignity, community, and resilience.
The story starts back in 2010, when Evergreen’s Center for Community-Based Learning and Action (CCBLA) teamed up with the Thurston County Food Bank to run a pop-up food bank out of Parking Lot C. With AmeriCorps support and student volunteers, groceries were handed out trunk-to-trunk. It was makeshift, but it worked.
Then the pandemic hit, and “just working” wasn’t good enough. The operation scaled up and moved indoors. CAB 135 became the Basic Needs Center—a permanent home with a purpose.
Twice a month, on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays, the room clears out and transforms into a full-on food bank. In two fast-paced hours, over 80 people flow through. Most leave with two full bags—usually enough to last the week. Fresh produce lines the back tables, donated from local farms like Calliope Farm, GRuB, and Kiwanis Food Bank Gardens, along with greens and veggies harvested right from Evergreen’s own Organic Farm. Carrots, bok choy, apples, potatoes—whatever’s in season ends up here.
And every week or two, the team loads up a cart of groceries and wheels it down to the Housing Community Center, refilling all three shelves of the community pantry. Every time they arrive, the shelf is completely bare. Every time.
Still think you’re “taking too much”? You’re not.
“If you want it, take it,” says Rachel Espinoza Ortiz, the center’s AmeriCorps coordinator. “Food has an expiration date. And honestly, we rely on a steady demand to keep getting donations. It helps everyone.”
“I love seeing students leave with a cart full of groceries,” Rachel adds. “The relief on their face—that tells you everything you need to know about how needed this place is.”
This isn’t charity. It’s a pressure valve. It’s a reality check.
“I was a work-study student at Evergreen,” says Ellen Shortt Sanchez, Director of CCBLA. “It’s not about hitting rock bottom and then getting help—it’s about preventing that fall in the first place.”
Because let’s be real: it’s not just about food. It’s about bandwidth.
Hunger messes with your brain, your mood, your focus. When you’re constantly worrying about how to eat, how to stay warm, how to keep clean—it eats your energy. It pushes your dreams to the back burner.
But when your needs are met? You can show up. Think clearly. Make art. Pass classes. Actually live your life.
I know that firsthand. I can get dressed in the morning—shoes to hat. I can eat three meals, brush my teeth, show up to class with my own notebook and pen. All of that is possible because I work at the Basic Needs Center. It takes so much fear out of my life. I get to focus on the things I’m actually interested in.
The Basic Needs Center isn’t just a resource. It’s a model for what higher education could be.
A place where survival isn’t a prerequisite for success.
A place where care is the default—not the exception.
