Food insecurity, or limited access to nutritious foods, is a concern that plagues college campuses across the nation, and at UW, the Haub School is working to alleviate that issue.
Albany County holds a 17.6 percent food insecurity rate. This is the highest among rates in the state of Wyoming according to feedingamerica.org.
The introduction of the Haub School Food Share Cabinet provides students who may be encountering food insecurity access to high quality foods at no cost to them.
The need for such a program was pinpointed by Haub School faculty and the Zero Waste Program, specifically Alanna Elder, a recently graduated environment and natural resources and sustainability student who began the initiative as her capstone project.
The cabinet is located in the BIM Kendall house and is accessible to any student. There is no signup or check in required and the process is completely anonymous.
“We want the cabinet to be a respectful, dignified experience for any student who is experiencing food insecurity,” Rachael Budowle, a Haub School faculty member helping to lead the project, said.
Students interested can sign up to receive emails to alert them when the cabinet is restocked and ripe for the picking. Keeping consistent with the anonymity of the cabinet itself, the email alert system is also anonymous.
A text message alert system is currently in the works, and as soon as a safe and secure program is identified, students can also be notified via text.
Providing quality foods for students is an important part of the program. College students know all too well that it is often times cheaper and easier to choose fast-food or take-out over healthier foods that are needed to provide energy throughout the day.
That is why the cabinet strives to carry more nutritious items such as pastas, oatmeal and canned vegetables and soups. In addition to various food items, the cabinet also supplies sealed toiletries.
While battling food insecurity is certainly the main goal of the Food Share Cabinet, the program also seeks to reduce food waste by increasing sustainability efforts on campus.
“By implementing these kinds of sustainability programs, we hope to improve our own operations at the Haub School, but also to provide a model for other academic and administrative units on campus,” Budowle said.
Haub School students are given the opportunity to take the lead in improving the program’s sustainability practices.
“We do this through applied student learning and experiences that really exemplify our sustainability curriculum,” Budowle said.
One such student is Zayne Hebbler. Hebbler is a sophomore from Cody, Wyoming whose majors include earth systems science and environment and natural resources in addition to minors in sustainability and outdoor leadership. Hebbler is also the Zero Waste Intern at the Haub School.
He describes the collaboration between the Food Sharing Cabinet and the Zero Waste Program.
“We saw that there were common themes of sustainability and equity in both programs, so we thought it would be great to work on them together,” Hebbler said.
The Zero Waste Program would like to see food sharing efforts like these to take hold on campus.
“Food sharing is something that I feel should be available to everyone at the University of Wyoming. We need support from the student body if we want to see more programs like this pop up around campus,” Hebbler said.
Students are invited to visit the Food Share Cabinet during regular Kendall House business hours, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Students who are able are encouraged to share the best of what they can with the cabinet.
