By: Areej Ali
This past November marked the launch of “Tax-Free Tuesdays,” an initiative proposed by McMaster Students Union president Ikram Farah during the 2018 presidential election.
The pilot project, created in collaboration with McMaster Hospitality Services, entailed offering students a 13 per cent discount at La Piazza during the month of November.
Farah initially created the initiative in effort to promote food affordability on campus.
“Food insecurity is real. The MSU invests in the operations of the MSU Food Collective Centre to offer immediate food support to students,” said Farah in a Silhouette article about the project from November.
With the winter semester coming to an end, McMaster Hospitality Services director Chris Roberts has confirmed that “Tax-Free Tuesdays” project will not continue in the future.
The aim was to have increased traffic flow in La Piazza, which would offset the financial losses resulting from giving students the discount.
According to Roberts, La Piazza did not see increased traffic in November.
“The data clearly showed that our transactions on the Tax-Free Tuesdays were no different than previous Tuesdays ,which resulted in a significant loss in revenue over the course of the pilot,” said Roberts. “This indicates that students continued their usual habits regardless of the discount.”
He cites Union Market’s elimination of their boxed water, suggesting that McMaster Hospitality Services must continue to operate in a financially responsible manner.
As such, the “Tax-Free Tuesdays” project will likely not resurface next year.
When asked for her comment on McMaster Hospitality Services’ decision, Farah did not provide a response to The Silhouette.
There is a lack of clarity with respect to McMaster students’ feedback from the project, including whether or not they believe there was sufficient advertising from the MSU.
Farah and the MSU have also yet to publicly respond to Roberts’ comments and McMaster Hospitality Services’ decision.
“I believe there are other initiatives that we could look at that serve the needs of students who are financially challenged that will not affect our financials in a negative way,” said Roberts.
An example of one such initiative is Bridges Cafe’s new “Cards For Humanity” program, a pay it forward initiative through which students donate to other students.
According to Roberts, students can expect to see various food accessibility initiatives emerge, but “Tax-Free Tuesdays” will no longer be one of them.
By: Neda Pirouzmand
On March 18, Bridges Café unveiled its new “Cards for Humanity” student program.
“Cards” refer to one dollar donations that students can make at checkout in the café. Each donation will go towards a future student’s purchase.
There is a one hundred dollar cap on donations so that funds do not accumulate.
Chris Roberts, director of McMaster Hospitality Services, described the program as user-friendly.
“It’s quite simple. Donate a dollar when you can, or use a dollar when you need it,” he said. “Anyone can donate to the project when purchasing a meal and students can use up to three dollars at a time towards their food purchase.”
Roberts attributes the idea for the program to a McMaster student.
“A student had seen something similar at the 541 Eatery and believed it would be a good way to help students with food accessibility challenges,” Roberts said. “Hospitality Services was supportive of the idea and we have worked hard to get the program elements in place.”
541 Eatery & Exchange is a Hamilton café that uses a pay it forward initiative to give all community members a place at the table.
Café customers can donate a dollar to buy a button, and future customers can use buttons towards their meal.
It should be noted that the program will be funded exclusively via McMaster students, not the university. This may make it less sustainable in the long-term as the successes of the program will be contingent on students’ ability and willingness to donate.
In addition, pay it forward initiatives have the drawback of being vulnerable to abuse.
Students can use cards for humanity donations regardless of whether or not they face food insecurity because there exist no restrictions on program eligibility.
However, Roberts is not focused on those who may try to abuse the system. He maintains that the pilot program’s success will depend on whether it addresses food insecurity and raises awareness for postsecondary food insecurity in Canada.
“There are students who could come and use the program but they don’t because they tell me that they would rather give than receive,” said a Bridges employee named Maggie.
Roberts does not see this initiative expanding in the future as he hopes that the support provided from Bridges will meet the needs of students on campus.
The smooth operation of this program will depend on goodwill. If students do not abuse the program, donations will be allocated towards those who need them the most.
[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]
Bridges Café is a hallowed McMaster destination for thoughtful conversation and inspiring performances. On Oct. 16, Toronto singer-songwriter Josh Taerk continued both of these traditions by bringing his musical storytelling into the space as part of the Coffee House Tour for his latest album, Beautiful Tragedy.
The tour will take Taerk and his band to university towns across North America where he’ll play stripped down versions of his rock-influenced music in campus coffeehouses. He was inspired to tour coffeehouses after playing shows at universities in the United Kingdom.
[spacer height="20px"]“Really it was a matter of getting in front of the right people…[U]niversity students really loved the music and they were getting behind [the] stories and they could connect with the things that I was saying and the experiences that I was presenting to them in the songs,” Taerk explained.
Taerk uses music as a communication tool. As a songwriter who writes from his own experiences, the connection to the stories in his songs is important. He wants his audiences to feel the full range of emotion that drives his songwriting and life itself.
There were a lot of experiences and emotions that were poured into Beautiful Tragedy as Taerk underwent changes in the three years since his debut, Here’s to Change.
“[D]uring that time it was… more of a self-discovery process than it was a musical discovery process… I learned so much more about the kind of artist that I wanted to be and the person that I wanted to be… The songs on that album and specifically the title track [were inspired by] that change of thought and that change of approach,” said Taerk.
One of the milestones from Taerk’s first to second album was his involvement in production. This provided him a chance to put forth his specific vision for three of Beautiful Tragedy’s tracks.
Like any new undertaking, this role came with challenges. Going from the perspective of an artist making music that he likes, Taerk found that the role of co-producer forced him to look at his songs collaboratively and feature multiple interpretations and skillsets.
Taerk also approached this album with the desire of paying his respects to the music that inspired him growing up. Some of his earliest memories consist of his parents playing their favourite records from artists like Hall & Oates and Bruce Springsteen. These musicians inspired him to start playing guitar.
“I'm a really big believer that everything happens for a reason…[T]he first guy that ever taught me how to play was more interested in teaching me the fundamentals of structuring chords before he taught me how to solo… I realized very quickly that in order for people to know what song I was playing… I would have to sing over it,” Taerk recalled.
“I started to write my own lyrics… [T]o to be able to take experiences that I was having and people very close to me were having and be able to put them into these little two, three minute stories and send them out into the world, it was just the best feeling in the world. And so I just knew that I had to keep doing it.”
By continuing to tell stories through music, Taerk has had the opportunity to travel to cities across the United Kingdom and North America. One of the stops still on his list is the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey. He would love to play the venue where Bruce Springsteen made a name for himself in his hometown as an homage to his father’s love of Springsteen.
For now, Taerk will keep writing, playing and singing in coffeehouses and bars across North America. Plugging himself into these various cities and cultures only fuels the creative and lyrical storytelling that Taerk produces.
[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]
