Image Credit: UBC Okanagan
October 03, 2022 - 7:00 AM
The UBC Okanagan and the student union are building a food hub that's the first of its kind on a Canadian university campus.
Student union president Jakson Pashelka said the need is increasing at the Pantry, the university's food bank, as more students have returned to campus following the easing of pandemic restrictions. The physical food hub's location, called Picnic, is being created in a partnership between the student union and UBC and will expand the current student food bank.
“Nationwide food insecurity is a huge problem. This is actually the first food hub of its kind at a university so it’s a pretty big deal… with the size of our campus and the growing need,” he said. “There’s more demand for food service and it’s not always accessible for students.”
Meal plans for students costs roughly $6,000 each school year.
The food hub will include a farmers' market, a community garden and a nutritionist education centre, said Melissa Feddersen, manager of the student health centre.
Roughly 40% of UBCO students are experiencing food insecurity, she said. The Kelowna Community Food Bank is serving 275 students a month and is experiencing record-breaking demand from the community in general, higher than it was during the height of the pandemic.
READ MORE: Inflation pushes demand at Central Okanagan food bank to historic level
Once completed, the hub will offer a free breakfast program, opportunities for students to access low-cost meals and community meals that focus on different cultures.
“The concept is a food hub is a way of networking people and opportunities and all the types of different initiatives to a network to reduce waste and reduce double-up and look for risks and opportunities currently in our environment,” Feddersen said, adding the model has been used in community development centres and is also being developed in partnership with UBC’s Vancouver campus.
For example, international students find it difficult to find ingredients to make foods that taste like home and the way some cultures view meals as a community experience so “to get food and go sit in your room doesn’t make sense to a lot of our students,” she said, adding international students making up a large demographic struggling with food insecurity.
A low-cost grocery store will potentially also be coming to the campus, something that is offered in Vancouver, but will start with healthy food boxes and other activities, she said.
“We hope to open within the next few weeks,” she said, with a soft opening depending on construction deadlines and will roll out additional activities for a hard launch in January, 2023.
The student union contributed $140,000 to the project, UBCO provided $150,000 and $55,000 came from the KGH Foundation.
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