Photo by Kyle West

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.

 

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Every year, the Student Life Enhancement Fund, a joint collaboration between the McMaster Students Union and the university, accepts idea submissions about improvements around campus. These are vetted down and reduced to a few finalists for the students at large to vote on.

In the past, this has successfully provided improvements to Compass, microwaves and electrical outlets in the McMaster University Student Centre and the fitness and boulder circuit near the track field across from Les Prince. The results from the most recent process that starting in January of this year will bring about a new round of changes.

These changes will be upgrades to second floor furniture in MUSC, upgrades to MUSC atrium furniture, charging stations across campus, investment in composting opportunities and a MSU Maccess resource library.

“I think that there are limited resources across campus, and I think this is a great way to ensure student needs are being met,” said Daniel D’Souza, vice president (Finance).

D’Souza explained the financials behind the fund,

“Students will pay their tuition, they’ll pay the MSU fee and then they’ll pay a [large number] of ancillary fees through the university. ... Some of those fees go to student affairs. In the past, this has been a pool of money that was used by manager of student affairs to say, ‘Okay, we want these projects.’”

The fund has changed a bit since it began in its current, student-driven form in the 2011-12 academic year, but considering that it draws from student affairs, its current level of  $150,000 per year dedicated to SLEF is a comfortable amount.

“It’s a delicate balance between how much is for student ideas and how much should be put towards core student services like career support and health. So that number right now I think is a good number in comparison to what else is in that fund,” said D’Souza.

At the time of writing, it is unknown how long it will take to implement this year’s projects.

While all of the upgrades that have been done and will continue to be done are a direct benefit, there is a major, indirect benefit as well. The ability to gauge student feedback and concerns, even if the ideas do not make it through the final voting phase, has had an influence on larger projects.

"I think that there are limited resources across campus, and I think this is a great way to ensure student needs are being met."

 

Daniel D'Souza

Vice president (Finance)

McMaster Students Union

In particular, the Pulse expansion and student activity building referendum conducted in March of this year may have been inspired by past requests.

“SLEF is a platform for students to voice their concerns. I think [from] some of the things that we’ve seen in the past, it’s clear that students want more space, they want more amenities on campus. And I think those are some of the driving factors behind the building of this new student centre,” said D’Souza.

He also acknowledged that some of the ideas denied in the past may be more feasible in the next few years with this increased access to space on campus. When it comes to the new student activity building, however, the Student Representative Assembly is not going to wait until SLEF to start the feedback process.

“Right now, there is a committee struck by the SRA that is a student activity building consultation committee, so over the summer, they are making a plan right now to consult students on what else students want to go in this building.”

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