Rowdy's Corner Mission & History
Rowdy’s Corner Mission
At Rowdy’s Corner, we create a welcoming space that offers holistic resources for our community. We seek to meet the need of our community with compassion and generosity. We hold space for growth and promote autonomy. We aim to serve every student with dignity and respect. We strive to continuously accommodate our community’s changing needs. As students, we will implement sustainable practices to reduce food waste on the Auraria campus. We will create a healthy, beautiful community where no one is hungry.
Rowdy’s Corner is working to reimagine food support and destigmatize the need for assistance and to help ensure there is Food for All.
Rowdy’s Corner connects with the Student Care Center and is sponsored by Student Engagement and Wellness, the Student Advocacy Council, and the MSU Denver Community. Aligning with these added resources, on and off campus, promotes the overall wellbeing of the students and assists students on every level of need.
Rowdy’s Corner is committed to sourcing products from local and regional businesses and providing nutritious, culturally relevant food for all of MSU Denver students.
Rowdy’s Corner strives to provide a range of food for those with dietary restrictions or allergies. Through our partnerships, we can offer students vegan, vegetarian, Halal, and Kosher options, as well as food from a multitude of cultures.
Rowdy’s Corner History
In the fall of 2007, a Student Government Assembly (SGA) leader, Kyle Haley, drafted a proposal to create the Metropolitan State College of Denver Food Bank. This was due to an increased number of students on campus facing poverty and hunger issues. In general, the student population is often overlooked or ineligible to receive many traditional human services such as food assistance programs. The need for a campus Food Bank became more evident as the economy declined. Therefore, the idea was developed to open a Food Bank on campus where students could go to receive free food items every week. At the time, there were very few colleges and universities in the country that were known to have Food Banks to serve students.
In the beginning stages, the program was under the supervision of the SGA with some help from the Office of Student Activities. The Food Bank opened in spring of 2008 with a student coordinator distributing food and coordinating donations out of a small (4 x 6 ft) closet. Unfortunately, the first attempt at the Food Bank was unsuccessful due to the lack of awareness on campus of its services and it soon became evident that more support was needed to start and sustain this program. Thus, the Food Bank was temporarily discontinued for restructuring. With this new knowledge, the Office of Student Life (now Student Engagement & Wellness) then took on the responsibility of restructuring the Food Bank with continued help and funding from the SGA. The Metro State Food Bank reopened in fall 2008 with two student coordinators to handle the challenges of a new program in a new location in the Tivoli Student Union.
The MSU Denver Food Bank was renamed to the Roadrunner Food Pantry in the summer of 2018. The location was also moved to Tivoli 262, which drastically expanded the space and visibility for our students. A student from Met Media designed a window cling that now protects our student’s privacy while they shop in the pantry. In the 2018/2019 year, the Dean of Students Office allocated a small amount of money that now allows us to buy a wider variety of options for our students. In Fall 2019, the Student Care Center was created and the RRFP became a part of this central hub for student support. During the pandemic, staff had to get creative and do their best to get students food. In Spring 2021, the Roadrunner Food Pantry partnered with local organizations to expand the options and increase the quality of offerings.
During the 2021-22 academic school year, we more than doubled the number of students that utilize our space. To continue to meet the needs of our community, in July 2022, we secured a lease to a new space. Rowdy’s Corner (formerly RRFP) opened November 29th, 2022 in Tivoli 271!
