On a sunny day in the Nest, I headed upstairs to the AMS Student Services office. Light shone down on a huge display, which said, “40% of UBC students don’t have enough to eat.”
Food insecurity has long been a pervasive issue at UBC. This statistic echoes research from the UBC Food Hub which shows that 30–40 per cent of students are consistently food insecure. According to last year’s Academic Experience Survey, 51 per cent of students worried about being unable to “afford adequate groceries.”
For fourth-year student Sophie Co, this critical issue lies at the centre of her academics and advocacy. Co studies food, nutrition and health (FNH) and has been the coordinator of the AMS Food Bank for two years.
She believes mitigating the rising rate of food insecurity is something that requires all hands on deck.
“This is something that people should be prioritizing. Because food is not something that people should have to fight for or prove that they need,” said Co. “It's an essential part of life.”
Roots in the Kitchen
Food is baked into Co’s family traditions — from the age of six, she remembers helping out in the kitchen. Growing up, it was baking with her aunt, a former pastry chef, that sparked her love of food.
Together, they would flip through Co’s grandmother’s giant cookbooks, recipes from family and friends collected over decades. Co continued baking in high school, often bringing her lemon bars — a secret family recipe — to enthusiastic classmates. However, she still didn’t know exactly which major she wanted to pursue at UBC. Co only had one guiding objective in mind.
“I always wanted to do something around health care or just helping people,” she said.
Eventually, Co realized what truly excited her was right in front of her all along.
“I found that my relationship with food was actually something I had a much deeper connection with,” she said. “Because I was able to have such a close relationship with food at such a young age, I knew that food was really important to me.”
Co was initially set on majoring in dietetics, studying nutrition care and treatment, she said, but switched to FNH.
According to Co, dietetics has an esteemed reputation within the Faculty of Land and Food Systems (LFS) as “the program everyone wants to go into.” But Co shifted toward a social perspective instead, with an aim to explore food security. This was driven by her initial desire to help others and foster community, a goal that is now clicking into place with her interest in studying food and applying academics to her community work.
“I want to actually build a deeper connection with a larger community, rather than with just one patient at a time,” she said. “I feel like that way, I’m able to potentially impact others more and also just learn from different people.”
Cultivating community in the chaos
When Co saw the AMS Food Bank coordinator job listing in 2023, she didn’t know much about the organization and its work. However, looking to feed her interest, she applied thinking it seemed “interesting” and got the job.
At first she was daunted by the prospect — at the time, she was a second-year, taking over the post from a more experienced dietetics grad student.
“I thought it was very intimidating,” Co admitted. “But I thought of it as a learning opportunity.”
It is this positive, determined mindset that allows her to navigate and lead within the food bank’s fast-paced environment.
The AMS Food Bank is the most widely accessed student service in the society, intended as a short-term “food relief service for UBC students in need.” According to the 2024/25 AMS Services Interim Report, it accounts for 70 per cent of total AMS service user interactions, with a 14 per cent increase from the previous annual report. Usage of the food bank has increased each year since 2011, with sharper rises occurring after the pandemic.
Co and the current team of 120 volunteers see this demand reflected in the day-to-day operations — between its two open days of Monday and Thursday each week, she estimated the AMS Food Bank averages 400 to 450 visits per day.
When I asked about the daily experience of running the food bank, Co — warm but poised throughout our conversation — let her composure slip for one second.
“It’s very chaotic,” she smiled. “That’s definitely one of the words I would use. Every day [provides] something predictable, but also unpredictable at the same time. It’s a strange balance.”
While there is routine in their staple offerings and repeat visitors, unpredictable elements can run the gamut, from a staff shortage to higher-than-average traffic, throwing a dash more mayhem into an already frenzied environment.
In spite of this, Co acknowledged how grateful she is to be part of the community, from the volunteers who work to assist as many people as they can to the “clients [who] are very understanding.” She loves building connections and learning about the clientele’s different perspectives, which she said is composed of a wide variety of international, domestic, graduate and doctorate students.
Receiving feedback — whether through one-on-one discussions or in focus groups — allows Co and the team to understand how to best serve their student body and how to address concerns with service issues, accommodations for dietary restrictions, healthy fare and culturally-appropriate foods.
For Co, relationships with the clientele built on support and communication come down to what seem like simple questions.
“You need to be able to actually sit down and understand, ‘What is it that you need? Yes, it's food, but what kind of food?'” said Co. “I really want to make sure that, as coordinator, I can incorporate [clients’] perspectives into our operations so they feel more welcomed, and also to make sure that the service is fit for them."
Planting seeds for long-term interventions
While the AMS Food Bank plays an important role in alleviating food insecurity on campus, Co is keenly aware it is only a band-aid solution to a deeper, more complicated issue. She hopes to try and implement longer-term solutions during her tenure, including redirecting clients to other community programs and organizations providing similar supplies.
“I don't want clients to have to rely solely on the food bank because it's just a short-term solution,” said Co.
In order to address this, she believes there is and must be a place for all voices in addressing food insecurity, not just ones from those in the LFS faculty.
“Food security is not one-dimensional. There's so many different aspects to it, and as long as people are bringing in their ideas to create long term change, they'll be able to be part of the solution,” Co said.
“I hope people realize that food insecurity sounds very daunting, but it's definitely something everyone is able to be a part of.”
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