Though a referendum to support the Arts Undergraduate Society's (AUS) food hub failed in the recent elections, AUS executives said they are committed to improving the food hub the continued development of the society’s food hub.
The proposed $1 fee would have supported the food hub’s three channels of programming, based in the Arts Student Centre: a community pantry, a monthly food fund providing grocery gift cards to students and monthly community meals. In the recent election, the fee failed by 0.2 per cent to achieve the 10 per cent voter turnout necessary for AUS referendums.
Access to the hub’s resources is not limited to arts students, and while students are encouraged to take only three items, AUS VP Administration Ian Caguiat said access is anonymous and student use is not monitored.
“Even if it’s just one student that will be taking it, it’s still an impact that we’re making to one student’s life.”
Food insecurity continues to be a growing concern on campus. Beginning in May, UBC staff will no longer be able to access the AMS Food Bank due to insufficient funding.
Despite the pressing nature of food insecurity, however, members of the AMS have expressed concerns regarding the logistical requirements of the AUS food hub.
At an AMS Council meeting on March 29, Senior Student Services Manager Kathleen Simpson said the financial and labour logistics of operating food security programs could quickly become challenging, while AMS President Eshana Bhangu echoed Simpson’s concerns and questioned the necessity of the AUS opening its own food hub given pre-existing resources.
The AMS did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
For Caguiat and AUS President Fatima Rua, however, the food hub is not a matter of diverting attention from these resources, but diversifying the quantity and variety of food security resources on campus.
Fifty-eight per cent of students who completed a survey at the AUS’s first community meals event indicated that they “were looking for programming where they can get free non-perishable food items,” which Caguiat pointed to as supporting the need for increased resources.
Caguiat also cited initiatives from other constituencies, such as Agora Café and the Engineering Undergraduate Society’s Engineering Student Centre Eatery, as demonstrating the presence and demand for a variety of food resources on campus.
Caguiat and Rua hope that the referendum will run again in an upcoming by-election. If passed, it would secure at least $13,000 in yearly funding for the food hub, an increase from the $8,100 allocated from the AUS VP Administration budget and the Faculty of Arts.
The increased budget, Rua and Caguiat said, could be used for new initiatives within the food hub, or even for donations to outside initiatives like Sprouts or the AMS Food Bank.
“We’re trying to provide as much as we can to students, to community members, that need food security resources," said Caguiat.