With food insecurity among students on the rise, the Lakehead University Student Union (LUSU) at the school's Orillia campus has launched a new student food pantry where students can access free food throughout the week.
The new pantry will offer food items for a variety of dietary needs, and it was stocked in part by hundreds of donations by Lakehead faculty and administration ahead of its opening.
University officials and LUSU representatives held a ribbon cutting ceremony for the pantry on campus Monday morning.
The new pantry brought mixed feelings for the Orillia student union's vice president, who was grateful to see it opened while also lamenting increased food insecurity on campus.
“One of the things we've been discussing today is (whether) this a celebratory event, or is this kind of more of a solemn occasion?” said VP Orillia Brandon Rheal Amyot. “I think it's a bit of both: the existence of food insecurity in and of itself is not something that I celebrate and it's not something the student union celebrates.
“At the same time, we have a responsibility to take care of each other, and that's why we have today the unveiling of the Food Resource Collective, more specifically our food pantry, and I want to give thanks to Lakehead for helping us create this space," said Amyot.
Students simply need to show their student cards at the student union office to access the pantry, Amyot said. It will be available Monday to Friday, when staff and student union representatives are in the office.
The pantry is a component of the campus' Food Resource Collective, which offers students a variety of options for accessing food when in need.
In January 2022, LUSU launched the Fresh Market, an initiative that brings free fruits and vegetables to campus for students once per month.
LUSU also offers grocery cards to students in need, and operates a monthly program called The Good Food Box, which offers students a box of fresh fruits and vegetables for $15.
“We do the monthly Fresh Market. It used to be that in three hours all the items would be gone; now in the first hour all the fruits and vegetables are gone,” Amyot said.
“Obviously, we're in times of high inflation where people are being gouged at grocery stores, and students were already food insecure due to the financial strains of post-secondary education and life, so that's what we're here to try and address today.”
According to a recent study done by Meal Exchange, Lakehead experiences the second highest rate of food insecurity across the study’s 13 targeted Canadian universities.
According to the study, food insecurity was experienced by 67.3 per cent of of Lakehead students in the 2020/2021 academic year, a figure that climbed to 73.8 per cent in fall 2021.
Beyond the programs offered on campus, Amyot said LUSU also does advocacy work at the provincial and federal level to address food insecurity on post-secondary campuses in Canada.
While the student union has budgeted some funding to keep stocking the pantry, Amyot encouraged donations from the broader community.
“If anyone wants to make donations, they can come Monday through Friday to our office, and we'll make sure to get them out into our pantry as soon as possible,” Amyot said. “I anticipate, as students start to make use of this resource, we'll have to actively recruit donations.”
More about LUSU’s food insecurity initiatives may be found here.
