By: Donna Nadeem
The rising prices of campus food make it increasingly difficult for many students to find a financially sustainable source of nourishment. In an effort to improve food affordability on campus, Ikram Farah, McMaster Student Union president, worked to introduce the pilot project of an initiative called “Tax-free Tuesdays” earlier this month.
Farah is largely focused on increasing food accessibility. Two of her year-plan objectives that centre around this are Farah’s “Tax-Free Tuesdays” plan, which has involved working with McMaster Hospitality Services and working with Bridges Café to offer healthier options at other restaurants on campus.
November will be the pilot month for Farah’s new “Tax-Free Tuesdays” initiative. The project was one of her platform objectives during her presidential campaign and was launched to address the high food costs on campus. Food at La Piazza will be tax-free on each Tuesday of November. Students can access this tax discount by using cash, credit or debit.
On each Tuesday in November, Hospitality Services will lower the sticker price of food items by 13 per cent, equivalent to HST, and the discount will apply to food sold from any of the vendors inside the La Piazza in the McMaster University Student Centre.
“The spirit behind Tax-Free Tuesdays is to address food prices on campus through collaboration with the university,” said Farah.
McMaster University prides itself on prioritizing the needs of students and providing programs and resources that promote physical and mental health.
Nevertheless, the rising prices of campus food call into question this stated goal. Students are finding it increasingly difficult to find a financially sustainable source of food, especially with the climbing prices of healthier options.
East Meets West Bistro and Bridges have never been considered the cheapest place for on-campus dining, but such increases in food prices are making meal plans less attractive from a food security standpoint. Moreover, East Meets West Bistro and Bridges are not included in the “Tax-Free Tuesdays” initiative.
To improve food security, the “food pantry,” along with the food collective centre in Bridges and the anonymous “lockers of love” program, provide an ongoing resource to students who need food the most. The Nolunchmoney initiative team also uses their social media to constantly keep students updated on free food events.
In addition, the MSU operates three specific locations that sell food: TwelveEighty, The Grind and Union Market; all three venues price their food to yield maximum value to the students.
“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.
The tax-free Tuesdays pilot program will look at and draw on responses from staff and students and more logistical feedback.
“To me the pilot is not a test of ‘success’ or ‘need.’ To lower costs at all is a success unto itself as there is a need,” said Farah.
On top of juggling academic and extracurricular involvements and struggling with tuition and residence fees, many students worry about not having enough food to eat. According to Farah, the MSU will continue to fulfill its commitment to providing students with affordable food options and advocate for McMaster to do the same.
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By Donna Nadeem
In recent years, attention to food security issues has been growing, with more consideration being given to access to adequate food, the high cost of food in communities, the recent rise in food prices and concerns about the safety and sustainability of the food supply.
Against the backdrop of this movement, Frank Chen, a fourth-year health sciences student at McMaster, decided to start Nolunchmoney, an online initiative that aims to increase student awareness about free food opportunities going on around campus. Nolunchmoney is an online initiative focused mostly on food recovery and sustainable practices at McMaster.
For over three years, Nolunchmoney has been running programs through its blog and Facebook page. The team uses their social media to constantly keep students updated on free food events.
They recently implemented a texting service so that students who are not as active on social media also have a way to be notified about all the events.
“Our platform is basically all marketing based on teaching students about food opportunities on campus and then we primarily use social media as a tool to show students about these events,” said Sai R. Garlapatia, co-president of Nolunchmoney.
https://www.facebook.com/nolunchmoney/photos/a.1541913649431952/1882722375351076/?type=3&theater
Nolunchmoney markets McMaster Students Union club events so that even more students can be informed of these opportunities and further food wastage is prevented.
“We are connecting services that are already there to the people. We are like the middleman,” said Garlapati.
Last year, the team started planning a new program called the Second Course and solidified a collaboration with Paradise Catering, which agreed to donate leftover baked goods that would otherwise be thrown out.
Nolunchmoney’s future goals include expanding their program by finding a designated space for the initiative on campus that is increasingly accessible to students.
“We are trying to expand in the way that, by securing funding, we can improve our marketing techniques and have a designated space on campus to always host our events with the food,” Garlapati explained.
In August, Nolunchmoney announced its partnership with SUSTAIN 3S03, a third-year undergraduate course open to students across all faculties at McMaster. Sixty per cent of the course grade comes from an experiential project that students to work on in groups.
The partnership between Nolunchmoney and SUSTAIN 3S03 was established in an effort to work to combat two campus-related sustainability challenges. The first challenge, called “Enhancing the Process to Recover and Share Free Food on Campus,” hopes to make free food more accessible on campus. The second, called “Enhancing Student Participation on Campus,” seeks to de-stigmatize free food initiatives and increase Nolunchmoney’s brand awareness and reach at the university.
“Another executive member and I are taking the SUSTAIN 3S03 course and one of our projects is improving the Nolunchmoney service, so it is an academic component and now students can help Nolunchmoney grow and get academic credit for it,” said Garlapati.
Students can also get involved by becoming a scout for Nolunchmoney, a job that entails seeking out free food events on campus and getting these posted about on the online initiative’s Facebook page.
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