The month of November marked the launch of two new programs in the fight against food insecurity at San Diego State: a no-waste initiative and mobile food pantry run by Associated Students.
The no-waste initiative, called A.S. No Waste, is designed to address hunger by notifying students via Twitter when free food is available on campus.
Students are encouraged to follow @asNOwaste on Twitter and turn on push notifications, which allows them to be notified of events with free food like the Giving Thanks Dinner held in the Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union on Nov. 17.
Foods and nutrition sophomore Adele Vaughan, a member of the Aztec Student Union Board, said she believes the initiative has a lot of potential.
“Food insecurity is a really, really big deal on this campus,” she said. “It might not necessarily affect you, but it could affect someone who like, you sit next to in class or someone in a student org you’re involved in.”
The no-waste initiative also notified students of the first day of the A.S. Mobile Food Pantry, which was set up for the first time the morning of Thursday, Nov. 27 at the weekly farmer’s market. It will be held every Thursday between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
The food donated from the San Diego Food Bank is used to fill canvas bags full of groceries such as potatoes and ramen noodles which is then transported to the mobile food bank tent at the farmer’s market, where students are able to take whatever food they need free of charge.
A.S. President Jamie Miller said A.S. has a room on the second floor of the Student Union for any students who do not feel comfortable coming to the food pantry out in the open.
“Any student is more than welcome to come up here,” Miller said. “Although we are really trying to find that base of students who (are) very much so in need.”
Marketing junior Abby Carson, who volunteered at a food pantry over the summer her only concern was that some students who are not in need may try to take advantage of the free food.
Carson said this was a less pronounced problem at her food pantry because people were required to register to use it.
“It’s hard for people to like, come say you know, ‘Oh, I need food,’” she said. “Sometimes people are a little embarrassed. I hope there are people that wouldn’t take food just because they wanted it, and they would leave it for people in need, but I think (registering) kind of gets rid of that problem.”
Workers gave away 45 bags of food in the first three hours of the mobile food bank, said to speech-language pathology senior Jenna Beuck, who is a member of the A.S. Community Service Commission and volunteered at the tabling.
Beuck said her experience with the Aztecs Rock Hunger Committee led her to believe a food bank is something SDSU students needed.
“I saw the definite need and interest from students about food insecurity issues and a lot of students on campus are lacking food, they run out of their meal plans, or they’re just having overall issues,” she said. “This is a way we can really help them out.”
Beuck said while most of the volunteers are A.S. members other students were showing interest in signing up to help out.
“This is the first trial run, our volunteer base is whoever wants to help,” she said.
Miller said she was glad to be able to help others in need. She said a total of 90 bags were given out at the A.S. first mobile food pantry.
“There’s something about helping someone else out,” Miller said. “Obviously, going without food is extremely difficult, but going without food as a student is even harder, I would say. So just to be able to make someone’s day like that, it’s awesome.”
