Nolunchmoney’s Second Course initiative

By: Donna Nadeem

With the cost of tuition, textbooks and living, finding food on campus at a reasonable price can be tricky to find. Nolunchmoney is an online initiative that battles food insecurity and has recently started a pilot program called Second Course to expand their initiative to battle food insecurity in innovative ways by working with event managers to offer free food events to students at McMaster.

This initiative was originally founded by Frank Chen during his time as a McMaster undergraduate to battle food insecurities for students at McMaster with the help of services like Mac Bread Bin.

Nolunchmoney began as a Facebook page to help guide students who are on a tight meal budget. The page has received more attention recently, going from 1,000 followers to 3,000 followers in the past year. To keep up with demand, Nolunchmoney has begun expanding their services.

The team began planning their new program during the summer and launched to initiative two weeks ago. They got in collaboration with Paradise Catering who agreed to donate their baked goods at the end of the day that go uneaten and would otherwise be thrown out.

The only issues with this are the public health concerns and liability issues, which they have been trying to address.

“Working with Chris Roberts, the director of McMaster hospitality services, and Taylor Mertens, director Mac Bread Bin, we have been trying to find ways around those policies and trying to work to expand to more nutritious food,” said John Vu, a fourth-year student and co-president of Nolunchmoney.

Nolunchmoney began as a Facebook page to help guide students who are on a tight meal budget. The page has received more attention recently, going from 1,000 followers to 3,000 followers in the past year. To keep up with demand, Nolunchmoney has begun expanding their services.

For over two years, Nolunchmoney has been running programming through their blog and Facebook page. The program has since continued to be run by McMaster students. The team uses their social media to constantly keep students updated on free food events with their calendar and their webpage as well as regular posts.

“We got Paradise to agree to donate their baked goods at the end of the day because they typically just get thrown out, and we bring the baked goods to Bridges, and have an event,” said Vu.

“[The] food is typically gone within 30 minutes, so we have been trying to find ways to expand by increasing the volume and recovering more nutritious foods,” he added.

Nolunchmoney’s future goals aim to continue to expand their program by finding more services that will work with them, along with working to increase the volume of the nutritious foods. By posting on their social media pages, they hope to increase student engagement of the events that offer free food to help students and to get students more aware of this major topic.