Oregon Community College President Running 1,500 Miles for Housing, Food Insecurity
Credit: Isbjorn / Getty Images- Clackamas Community College President Tim Cook told BestColleges about 16% of his students faced a lack of housing at some point in the last year.
- People will be able to sponsor any amount of money per mile that Cook runs toward the college of their choice to address housing and food insecurity in their community. Cook’s goal is $150,000.
- Cook was invited to a task force pushing a bill through the state Legislature that would fund $22 million toward college students’ basic needs support.
Starting June 16, Clackamas Community College President Tim Cook will run 1,500 miles across Oregon, Forrest Gump-style. But, unlike Gump, Cook didn’t just “feel like running.”
He’s running to raise awareness and funding for students facing housing and food insecurity at Oregon community colleges.
He’ll be running over a marathon a day (32 miles) to 17 colleges across the state and burning through about six pairs of Nikes in 50 days.
“I’ve been concerned for several years [about] just the challenges students were facing around food and housing insecurity,” Cook told BestColleges.
“I was seeing it escalate and seeing students living in cars, seeing students struggle to find food — and you can’t learn if you don’t have a place to live and you don’t have food.”
Clackamas, just south of Portland, serves about 20,000 students. Cook has served as president for over seven years.
According to a 2019 survey at 14 Oregon community colleges by The Hope Center, within 30 days of responding, 41% of students were food insecure, meaning they missed at least one meal or were unsure of how to pay for a meal. Twenty percent of respondents were homeless in the previous year, and 52% reported being housing insecure in the previous year.
Cook told BestColleges that at Clackamas, 16% of students faced a lack of housing at some point in the last year.
Fundraising for Basic Needs Support
People can sponsor the miles Cook runs. Through the website, people can donate to an Oregon community college of their choice. Cook said if someone donates just a nickel per mile, it’ll total $75.
Cook is hoping to raise about $100 per mile, or $150,000 in total, for all the colleges. The donations to Clackamas will go directly to basic necessity support. Some funds will go to students facing housing insecurity and may include paying rent, providing food support, or donating gas cards to get students to campus.
“My concern is that I want students to graduate,” Cook said. “I want them to complete. I want them to not have a barrier of something with their housing or food or anything else that causes them to drop out.”
Students Are Planning the Route
Last summer, Cook tried to map his run using Google and tested out the route with his wife and a rental recreational vehicle. Google ended up leading them down Forest Service roads and hiking trails.
This year, as Cook’s plans came together, students from the Clackamas Geographic Information Systems program asked if they could do a project mapping his route. By the time Cook starts his run, there will be an interactive map that anyone can follow to see where he is in the state.
The map will feature blurbs about the colleges he visits, community events for his college stops, and other features students are still planning.
Running — and Advocating — for Basic Needs Security
Cook’s run has caught the attention of federal and state legislators who have offered to run a mile or two with him on his stops.
His time with legislators doesn’t stop there, though. Cook testified for a bill the Oregon Hunger Task Force submitted that would create more stable funding for college students’ basic needs. He plans to bring attention to the bill throughout his run.
The bill proposes over $22 million spread across three key areas:
- $10 million for students needs support to expand community colleges and universities’ programs, infrastructure, and personnel
- $6.5 million for affordable student housing initiatives, including rental assistance for low-income college students and the creation of a “Student Housing Task Force” to see what barriers prevent students from accessible housing
- $5.2 million for “Open Oregon Educational Resources,” a textbook affordability program of no-cost and low-cost textbooks and materials
‘What’s Wrong With You?’ ‘Can You Physically Do This?’
Cook said people either don’t care enough to learn about his run, or they do and then question his sanity.
Cook runs a marathon about every three months. The most he’s ever run at a time is about 50 miles. The run to help community college students will be his longest consecutive run.
He said the biggest challenge will be the constant waking up in a guest bed or campground, going on his long Forrest Gump-style runs, eating at a different restaurant each day, sleeping, and repeating.
But the more others get excited for it, the more they affirm his mission.
“My ‘why’ is super strong,” Cook told BestColleges. “When I think about why I’m doing it, I get really excited. And the more people I talk to that are like, ‘This is amazing, this is really cool that you’re trying to do this and get that done,’ the more inspired I get to do it.”