How N.S. university food banks are adapting to keep up with high demand - Action News
Home WebMail Wednesday, November 13, 2024, 03:57 AM | Calgary | -1.0°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
Nova Scotia

How N.S. university food banks are adapting to keep up with high demand

Student leaders at some Nova Scotia universities are having to change the way they run their school food banks. They say more students are turning to them for help each year, so they've had to figure out how to keep up.

Acadia co-ordinator thinks roughly half of student population will need help with groceries by April

A man with short brown hair wears a blue and white hoodie. He's standing in front of a set of black shelves with a few cans of food on it.
Third-year student Yas Jawad is the co-ordinator of the Acadia University food cupboard. (Pat Callaghan/CBC)

The people who run food banks at universities across Nova Scotia are noticing more students turning to them for help each year, and some have had to make significant changes to keep up with the rising demand.

After paying for housing and tuition, many students don't have much left over to afford other necessities. As the cost of groceries in this province remains high, they're finding it increasingly difficult to make their dollars stretch, according to food bank managers at Acadia, Mount Saint Vincent and St. Francis Xavier universities.

Yas Jawad, co-ordinator of the Acadia University food cupboard in Wolfville, N.S., said about 1,200 students used the service by the end of last school year in April. Given the way things are going since classes resumed in September, Jawad estimates that number will jump to about 2,000 students by April 2025.

That representsabout half of Acadia's student population.

A man with short black hair wears a blue and white hoodie. He is stocking shelves with food.
Jawad is seen stocking shelves at the Acadia food cupboard. It's open seven days a week. (Pat Callaghan/CBC)

To keep up, Jawad said they've had to restructure many aspects of the food cupboard.

Some changes included introducing limits on specific items to make supplies last longer,acquiring a fridge to offer produce, dairy and other perishable products, and hiring a full-time manager to oversee the operations. Moreover, he said, their group's status changed from an "internal organization," similar to a club, to an official, more permanent service offered by the student union.

Jawad added there are also now 52 student volunteers who work in the space to ensure the food cupboard can remain open seven days a week.

"I think that just goes to show that demand is very, very high and it's just increasing as time goes on," said Jawad. "While having a resource like this on campus or in any kind of post-secondary institution is great, it's really only a Band-Aid solution right now."

At Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, food bank manager Devora Goldberg is seeing similar trendsand having to make similar adjustments.

She too has had to place limits on certain items, but she's also had to limit the number of times students can visit the food bank from twice per week to once in order to help as many students as possible.

A woman wears her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. She is wearing a royal blue blouse and stands in front of a shelf stocked with cans of soup and tomato sauce.
Master's student Devora Goldberg is the food bank manager at Mount Saint Vincent University. (David Laughlin/CBC)

Goldberg said she's also having to go grocery shopping at least once a week this year to supplement weekly contributions from Feed Nova Scotia.

"Feed Nova Scotia will come and restock for us on Fridays, and then the food is gone after a couple of hours," said Goldberg.

She said the changes she's had to make to operations so far this school year have helped reach at least 20 per cent more students than the previous year.

"This just allows us to stretch the dollars even further and allows people to have more on their tables," said Goldberg.

At St. F.X.in Antigonish, food bank manager Brooklynn Companion said they've had to reduce their hours because their items weren't lasting long enough.

Companion said about 70 students come through each day.

A girl with long brown hair poses for a headshot. She wears a pale pink shirt and silver hoop earrings.
Brooklynn Companion manages the food bank at St. Francis Xavier University. (Submitted by Brooklynn Companion)

To keep up with these numbers, they've recently renovated their food bank area. They now have a designated space to prepare food, including an areato separate bulk items into individual servings.

They've also expanded food services to several other buildings across campus to increase accessibility.

"I go to the library and people get so excited because they know that the food at the library is going to be restocked by the 'food bank girl.'"

Jawad, Goldberg and Companion each confirmed the need is only growing year over year, and they know they have to continue finding ways to adapt and expand their services.

MORE TOP STORIES

Add some good to your morning and evening.

Get the latest top stories from across Nova Scotia in your inbox every weekday.

...

The next issue of CBC Nova Scotia newsletter will soon be in your inbox.

Discover all CBC newsletters in theSubscription Centre.opens new window

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Google Terms of Service apply.