Retired Professor Tackles Student Hunger

“When I first started teaching, I would bring in a basket of candy on test days,” says Connie McGuire, who retired from teaching at the College in 2018 after 20 years in the Business and Economics Department on the Rockville Campus (1998-2018). “I quickly realized students were hungry. So, I started bringing granola bars and nuts every day. A few students would stay late to take the leftover food home. They weren’t being greedy. They were hungry.”

McGuire and her husband, John, recently established an academic scholarship that follows an MC student through completion of a four-year degree at a Maryland institution, but their prior—and enduring—financial support focuses primarily on MC students experiencing food insecurity. During the pandemic, the McGuires contributed to the MC Foundation and requested the funds help supply the campus food pantry, ACES food programs, and food gift cards for student life.

“All it takes is to hear the back stories of these students to want to help each and every one of them,” says McGuire. Their support, combined with outpouring from the community, helped the Foundation reach a distribution milestone: $3 million to more than 2,300 students in FY 2021.

“Connie and John McGuire do so much to ensure our students are supported,” says Joyce Matthews, executive director of the Montgomery College Foundation. “Whether it is their generosity on behalf of our food security programs or their most recent gift supporting a student through the completion of his or her bachelor’s degree, we simply couldn’t be more grateful.”