An Oregon State University resource center that assists students with food, housing and other challenges is getting a huge boost.

Alum Thomas W. Toomey has donated $1 million to endow a fund that will assist the Human Services Resource Center.

The gift, which was announced by President Ed Ray on Feb. 11 at his annual state of the university speech in Portland, provides the center with an immediate $50,000 to work with. The remainder of the money will be invested, with the center authorized to spend the annual interest and dividends, said Nicole Hindes, the assistant director in the Office of Student Life who coordinates the resource center.

“It’s great to get a gift of this size,” said Hindes, who just passed her fourth anniversary with the center. “It’s really good for us to know we’ll get a predictable amount each year.”

“I have been struck by the seriousness of the challenges many students face, and also by the possibility of making a tangible impact,” Toomey said. “I hope others will be inspired to take action and join me in making gifts to address these issues. We cannot expect students to do well in class when they are concerned about where they will sleep for the night, or if they will have enough money to buy groceries for the week.”

Hindes, like Toomey, is hopeful that others will come forward and donate as well. The center, whose budget depends mostly on student fees, was a featured fundraising option at Giving Tuesday in December and it will be featured again in April’s Dam Proud Day.

Key services the center provides are a food pantry and kitchen, a textbook library, laundry and shower service. The center also has access to 10 residence hall rooms for student housing emergencies that can last up to 28 days. Previously, the center only had two rooms available and often had a waiting list.

Also new at the center is the “food for thought” program. University Housing and Dining Services has started packaging meals with food that was not consumed at its dining centers.

The packaged and sealed meals are free for eligible students and $3.50 for others.

During a recent visit, Hindes showed off a second-floor room that contains the textbook lending library. The center budgets $20,000 per year for book buying and also receives donations from students, faculty and staff. The library has 2,500 books that are usable in 450 OSU classes.

Hindes said that the textbook service can be an “entry point” for students, particularly first-year students, to interact with the center. Because first-year students are required to live on campus they already have written the check for room and board. Then comes the textbook sticker shock.

“All students deal with the textbook racket,” Hindes said. “And if by coming in here to borrow a book they can meet the staff, that might make it easier to come in if they need help. It takes a lot of courage to come in with food issues.”

Meeting the staff often means a session with Miguel Arellano Sanchez, the center’s “basic needs navigator.”

“He’s so good at his job,” said Hindes of the OSU alum who is charged with making sure a student in need gets those needs met. It might be housing or food, or perhaps helping a student sign up for SNAP, the federal supplemental nutrition assistance program.

Hindes, Arellano and her staff also are continuing to work on improving the center’s services.

“We’re not slowing down,” she said. “We’re just getting our second wind.”

Hindes said she is looking to make the food offerings more nutritious and wants to bring in more “culturally relevant” food.

The center also is looking to expand its housing offerings, particularly for students who might have children and thus not be eligible for a residence hall room.

Such students might wind up in a hotel, which is much more expensive.

Which is why Hindes and Toomey are hoping some good-hearted folks out there will help donate in an effort to match the gift.

Who: Thomas W. Toomey

OSU tie: 1982 College of Business graduate

Career: Toomey is the chairman and CEO of UDR, Inc., a real estate investment trust and S&P 500 company.

Other OSU philanthropy: Toomey is past chair of the OSU Foundation board and previously made gifts supporting faculty in the College of Business, construction of the college’s Austin Hall, and the new arts and education complex.

Here is a look at the experiences of three students who were assisted by the Human Services Resource Center at Oregon State University:

Angelee Calder

Unable to afford local housing, Calder spent her first term at OSU living in a motor home an hour’s drive from campus. Staff from the student Human Services Resource Center OSU helped her get an emergency grant for an apartment.

“People have this idea that college is a party where you are just having fun all the time. But there are a lot of us who are terribly stressed and hardly able to feed ourselves,” said Calder, an agricultural sciences major who is the first in her family to go to college.

Lonni Ivey

Ivey is a Salem resident and single parent. After completing a double major in philosophy and religious studies, she will pursue graduate studies at OSU focused on biomedical ethics. At the beginning of December she was down to $50 in savings and received assistance from the student resource center when she was unsure how she would pay her bills and buy gas to get to class.

“I was skipping meals. I don’t know what my daughter and I would have done without the student resource center,” she said. “They go to incredible lengths to make sure students are taken care of. I am so thankful.”

Caleb Wilson

At one point last year Wilson, a computer science major, was working three jobs, prompting him to have inadequate sleep and miss classes. Receiving food, textbook loans and other support from the student resource center has helped him focus on his education.

“I used to think that I just had to survive now so I could live later,” he said. “This support means I get to live now.”