thursday, sept. 19, 2024
celebrating 121 years
free
Story by Rosina Boehm culture editor
Photos by Joe Zhao video editor
T
he Schine Student Center Dunkin’ Donuts makes his order before he gets to the front of the line. Almost every person smiles at him as he strolls down the Einhorn Family Walk. Most residents of Lawrinson Hall know the wiener dog’s name — Toaster. “No one else on another floor has a pet,” said Thomas Wit, a sophomore who lived with Toaster in Lawrinson last year. “A lot of people would see (his owner) walking Toaster outside, and they would stop, say hi, try to pet Toaster. He’s like a little mascot for Lawrinson.” Toaster — Toast or Toastie or Weenie — is Syracuse University senior Ellen Clark’s small, gray and spotted dachshund. The two are roommates in Lawrinson and Toaster helps Clark with her resident advisor duties in the Maxwell Citizenship Living Learning Community. For the spring 2024 semester, she brought the wiener dog to campus for the first time. Wit woke up after returning from winter break last year because of barking down the hall. He was initially confused and then remembered his RA’s GroupMe message: his floor now had a dog. Wit grabbed his roommate and knocked on Clark’s door. He remembers Toaster being super small and trying to break out of his owner’s room. Toaster’s presence on the floor made it easier for Wit to come home from winter break after leaving his dog and family. “When you come back to your room, you either would see him running around the halls, or at night, you see him coming to the common room,” Wit said. “It was a nice experience to have because it was having a small part of home with you.” see TOASTER page 11
city
Double Up Food Bucks combats food insecurity in Syracuse By Delia Rangel asst. news editor
After the Syracuse Downtown Farmers Market opted into the Double Up Food Bucks NYS program earlier this summer, Farmer Brown’s Market Garden owner Kyle Brown said he’s
seen a recent influx of Syracuse residents buying from his stand. DUFB allows people in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to maximize its benefits. Participating businesses match the price of shoppers’ produce purchases up to $20 a day. Because the city of Syracuse is
home to several food deserts, Brown said he hopes the program will make fresh fruits and vegetables more accessible in his community. “It’s a really important program. It allows people access to healthy local food that otherwise might not be able to get that,” Brown said.
The DUFB program allows shoppers to maximize their federal SNAP benefits and supports local farmers, Farmers Market Liaison Chuck McFadden said. The Syracuse farmers market joined the program in June. The program is offered at over 230 locations across New York state.
Customers can swipe their Electronic Benefits Transfer card at the farmers market’s Market Manager booth to receive DUFB tokens worth $2 each, McFadden said. Once shoppers receive their DUFB tokens, they can use them at any par see food bucks page 7