When Sonya Thomas-Brown first started attending Pellissippi State Community College, she lived paycheck to paycheck.
"It was very hard to manage things," she said. "I would have to juggle bills, figure out what I could be late on versus what needed to be paid."
Thomas-Brown was a non-traditional student. Although she had good grades in high school, she didn't start her college career until she was 39 years old. For a time out of high school in 1993, Thomas-Brown remembers making as little as $5.25 an hour working at her local Wal-Mart. She eventually became a certified nursing assistant, and was able to work with multiple clients from 2014 until 2019, earning about $12 an hour.
Still, Thomas-Brown qualified for a Pell Grant. And even though she worked multiple jobs and took every opportunity for scholarship or grants that she could, she still found herself going hungry.
Drema Bowers is the director of the department of student care and advocacy at Pellissippi State, a center that helps students like Thomas-Brown connect with resources like Pellissippi's food pantry, or a local church group who is currently helping a homeless student stay a few nights in a hotel.
“Many people think that the students using our supports are not working," said Bowers. "Most of the students who come to us are working. Some are working two jobs or more."
Thomas-Brown never wanted to take food from anyone who might have needed it more, but there were times, she said, that that food pantry "saved me until the end of the month, or until I got paid."
