UBC Wellbeing and UBC Food Systems recently relaunched its Food Hub website.
The website, an evolution from an initiative founded in 1997, offers students resources for food insecurity and preparing food across campus, among other essential services. With the launch, Food Hub aims to address the need for sustainability not only on the individual level, but the campus as a whole.
“We are not just focusing on this deficit of this community,” said Sara Kozicky, a representative for Food Hub as well as one of its key organizers. “Really, it is our hub for promoting food security … which is also more broad than just being able to financially access food … it is also about how we facilitate greater accessibility and culturally sustainable food.”
By taking steps to alleviate the physical and mental health consequences of food insecurity, the Food Hub hopes to reveal the importance of nutrition in an academic setting.
“Food insecure students showed lower grades, higher rates of mental health concerns and a higher tendency to reduce their course load or drop out, therefore requiring more time to complete their studies,” the website reads.
The Food Hub is the newest iteration of the Food Security Initiative, a collaboration between UBC Wellbeing and the SEEDS Sustainability Program. Their primary focus since 2020 has been promoting food security and scalable solutions to achieve these goals. The initiative also provided funding to the Sprouts Cafe’s free meal program — which started last month.
Kozicky says this mission has not changed.
“This is a location where we want to reduce as much as possible the stigma of accessing different resources and support for our community members. There is a focus not only on students but also staff who can access this site.”
According to a 2019 survey, 37 per cent of undergraduate students at UBC Vancouver and 42 per cent of students at UBC Okanagan reported having experienced low to very low food security. The AMS Food Bank has also seen a spike in demand this past year, with nearly 2,500 visits between May and October.
Looking ahead to the new year, however, Kozicky remains hopeful.
“It’s a very exciting time on campus and we’ve definitely been chatting with community leaders,” she said. “We’ve been very engaged with partners so it will be an exciting 2022.”