UBC is opening a new food prescription program in September, thanks to a $3.5 million gift from RBC. The program is meant to address food insecurity on campus and is one of three initiatives supported by RBC’s largest-ever donation to a post-secondary institution.
Announced on May 29, the program will operate out of UBC’s recently-opened Gateway Health Building, the new home of UBC’s integrated student health services. “Alongside physical and mental health screening, students may now be asked about their food security,” a statement from the university read. “If a risk is identified, clinicians will create a personalized food prescription and connect students directly to the campus food supports.”
“We know that a student who is hungry cannot focus, cannot engage and cannot perform to their potential,” said Noorjean Hassam, UBC’s associate vice-president, student health and wellbeing. Hassam said the program will be transformative by including nutritional health in the support UBC gives students.
The donation comes as one in four Canadians report living in food-insecure households. According to Food Banks Canada, nearly 2.2 million Canadians visited a food bank in a month last year.
Students at UBC are feeling the pressure too. Forty-six per cent of students reported worrying about affording groceries in the 12 months prior to May 2025, according to last year’s AMS Academic Experience Survey. Graduate and international students were more likely to face food insecurity than undergraduate and domestic students.
In the 2024-25 school year, the AMS-run food bank recorded 27,329 interactions, representing an eight per cent increase in interactions from the previous year, and 18 times the number of interactions just five years ago.
With increasing financial pressure on students, student union executives have pushed for greater food security funding for years. In last year’s AMS executive goals, the VP external and VP academic & university affairs committed to lobbying UBC and the provincial government for funding to support food security, including for student union foodbanks across the province.
In September, the AMS and the Students’ Union Okanagan (SUO) both asked the Board of Governors to increase funding for similar initiatives. The board seemingly agreed, and in March, committed $1.2 million towards food security initiatives in the university’s budget — consistent with the student unions’ requests and up from $800,000 the year prior.
The Ubyssey reached out to Agora Café, Roots on the Roof and Sprouts — food security organizations on campus — for comment, but received no response.
RBC’s gift also supports an agriculture practicum to train future farmers and the BC Food Web, an online resource that “translates complex agricultural research into plain-language resources that farmers and industry can act on directly.”
