Students, faculty and staff have the opportunity to donate canned goods and/or non-perishable items to Montclair State University’s Red Hawk Pantry through parking services and facilities services to pay off parking citations.
Scott Nayda Sr., director of parking services, explained the purpose of the program.
“Cans for citations is a way for parking services and facilities services to give back to the campus community,” Nayda Sr. said. “For each one item donation it’s worth 10 dollars towards a citation. So you bring in five cans of non-perishable food it’s able to take care of one open citation.”
Cans and other non-perishable food items at the Red Hawk Pantry. Allen Macaraeg | The Montclarion
While sharing the means of the program, Nayda Sr. shares that parking services are not there to take money from those who have open citations, which is why the Cans for Citations program was put in place.
“It’s kind of a two fold, we take care of open citations, we’re not here just to make money,” Nayda Sr. said. “We want to be ‘ punitive here but part of the process is we have to provide parking for everybody. So we understand, you know, a parking ticket and a fine is a hardship, so we decided to partner with the Red Hawk Pantry to take care of open citations and try to make a donation.”
Nayda Sr. also shared how Cans for Citations benefits the Montclair State community, including those battling hunger.
Non-perishable food items. Allen Macaraeg | The Montclarion
“Well I believe the Red Hawk Pantry’s open to all students and faculty and staff so that’s one way,” Nayda Sr. said. “The other way is that students, faculty and staff [can pay off] citations so you can take care of a citation by making a donation.”
Melissa Bush, a sophomore education major, would utilize the program due to financial reasons.
“Well I feel like [Cans for Citations] could benefit me in terms of money,” Bush said. “I feel like for me I’ve gotten tickets before and they’re extremely expensive so I feel like that would definitely benefit me in terms of paying for the ticket.”
Ariel Balcacer, a freshman computer science major, shares how he and others will benefit from the program.
“Me personally, I’ve never gotten a citation or any of that stuff but I’ve known people who’ve gotten citations before for probably parking in the wrong spot or you know just for not realizing where they are,” Balcacer said. “I think it’s a nice way to like kind of help both the students and the community, you’re helping one the students like you know get the citation waived off by [parking services] by them donating a canned good to someone who may desperately need it and what benefits the community is receiving these canned goods and you know it’s like a win-win situation at the end of the day for these people.”
Balcacer shared how this program allows students and staff to do good for the community while also making up for mistakes when receiving the citation.
Canned goods and other non-perishable items. Allen Macaraeg | The Montclarion
“So I think it’s very beneficial in that fact where you can do good for the community and make up for your own mistakes,” Balcacer said. “At the end of the day you’ll feel a lot better than you were moments before when you’re given the citation you’re like ‘Oh gosh now I gotta go handle this citation’ and now you’re like ‘You know what I could amend for these mistakes’ and one of those ways is by giving that canned good to the pantry and [parking services] resolve[s] the issue for you.”
Joanna Data, a sophomore education major, shared her thoughts on the program.
“I mean I feel like I see a lot of people get tickets,” Data said “I feel like it would help them pay off because I was sitting once in my car and someone got ticketed and I felt bad because they just left and not many people have enough money to pay for it so it would benefit them.”
Data explained that she would use the program in the future if she ever received a parking citation.
“Yea ’cause not everyone here has a lot of money, and college costs a lot so it would help me a lot,” Data said.
Bush suggested another way to relieve parking citations could be by hosting a clothing drive.
Canned goods stored at the Red Hawk Pantry. Allen Macaraeg | The Montclarion
“I mean there’s always like donating clothes or things like that.”
Nayda Sr. says parking services is in the works of potentially creating a coat drive for Rocky’s Closet.
“We are looking to right now kind of see if we can expedite it but I don’t know how successful we’re going to be ’cause we don’t wanna launch a program that it’s kind of haphazard right, so we’re trying to do a coat drive,” Nayda Sr. said. “Especially you know we’ve heard that some international students aren’t really used to the weather here in New Jersey and you know it’s getting colder out now so we’re trying to figure out how we can do that and still take care of a citation for it. We don’t want to just run a coat drive, we want to be able to accept any donation and address an open citation. So we’re just trying to figure out the nuances in that so we’re working on that now to try to help out Rocky’s Closet.”
Boxes of mac and cheese and pasta. Allen Macaraeg | The Montclarion
The goal for parking services and facilities is to resume the Cans for Citations program, starting it back up in the spring semester. Nayda Sr. also shared the success of the recent donations prior to Thanksgiving.
“For any future considerations, yeah we’re probably going to do this again in the spring,” Nayda Sr. said. “So we did one back in the spring for two full weeks, we decided to do this one right before Thanksgiving in an effort to make a donation to the [Red Hawk Pantry] prior to the holiday and that was pretty successful.”
