COLLEGE OF ST. SCHOLASTICA JOINS ‘SWIPE OUT HUNGER’ CAMPAIGN

By Abigail Blonigen

While people often joke about the college student’s reliance on ramen noodles, the situation may not be a laughing matter. As the price and demand of higher education increases, so do other monetary problems such as food insecurity.

At the College of St. Scholastica, student body president Jason Chavez-Cruz took note of this upon the release of the Boynton College Student Health Survey in 2015. It stated 22.1 percent of St. Scholastica traditional students reported worrying about whether their food would run out before they had money to buy more; 14.7 percent reported experiencing a food shortage in which they did not have money to purchase more.

The 2017 report of the biannual survey reported that those numbers had changed to 23.7 percent and 13.8 percent, respectively.

“Since freshman year, I’ve known people that don’t have food, friends that don’t have food, that can’t eat,” Chavez-Cruz said.

This concern led him to create a task force within St. Scholastica’s Student Senate to tackle the issue of food insecurity. While St. Scholastica does have a student food shelf, Chavez-Cruz emphasized the need for hot, fresh meals. This is how he came across “Swipe Out Hunger.”

Swipe Out Hunger is an organization that began at the University of California-Los Angeles in 2009, in which students used their meal cards to buy sandwiches for homeless people in their community. They now have 36 campus partners in 18 different states and have served 1.4 million meals. The nonprofit has been recognized by the White House, Forbes, the New York Times, and more for their efforts to end student hunger.

While programs vary campus to campus, Scholastica aims to keep theirs student-centered, with students being able to donate their unused dining swipes to students facing food insecurity.

After writing a proposal in December and receiving approval from the college and Aramark, Scholastica’s food service provider, in February, Senate put together a team and partnered with Campus Ministry to get the program up and running.

Dining services agreed to allocate 1,000 swipes right off the bat to help launch the organization: 500 for the spring 2018 semester, and 250 for the following two semesters. However, it is dependent upon student donations to keep it going. Students may donate up to eight meals each with an overcall cap of 500 per semester. In addition, dining services will donate $200 each semester for students to make sandwiches for those facing food insecurity in the Duluth community.

As of March, food insecure students may receive up to five swipes per month, though this is subject to change upon development of the program.

“The number of swipes we’re able to give a student is not going to meet all of their food needs, but at least it’s one way we can offer support,” said Jessica Ellingson, campus minister at the college. “Hopefully their dollars for their other meals can spread that much further.”

Within the first few days of the program being live, five students had already signed up to receive dining swipes.