MAKING CHANGE
Pioneering Food Resources and Research
The “field” of higher education did not seriously begin discussing the reality of food insecurity on college campuses until the late 2010s. Much of this work focused on community colleges and regional colleges and universities where the need seemed to be most prevalent. Aware that students at selective, affluent universities were also experiencing disruptions to food access, but having no data to support our perceptions, Authors Nathan and Cara launched, and Sarah eventually led, an unofficial food security “working group” on Baylor’s campus consisting of interested faculty, administrators, and graduate students. Initially, the team set out to survey students on campus to determine the prevalence of food insecurity.
with Pastor Ruben Andrade
Serendipitously, after our first meeting, a local church pastor, Ruben Andrade from Family of Faith Worship Center, contacted a campus administrator with a request to distribute thousands of pounds of produce to Baylor students because he had gone hungry as a Baylor student decades ago. Unsure if the email was legitimate or not, the administrator knew the working group had recently met and forwarded it to us. The request and promise of thousands of pounds of produce was legitimate, and a result of the church’s partnership with the Central Texas Food Bank. We hosted the first Baylor Free Farmer’s Market fall 2016, where we set up tables and borrowed pop-up tents from departments on campus and gave away fresh produce. Before we had survey data in hand, we knew students needed food. Over 800 students stood in the pouring rain for over 45 minutes to get produce.
with Baylor President
Linda Livingstone
with Ruben Canedo (Berkeley) and
Tim Miller (James Madison)
presenting at NASPA.
The Baylor Free Farmer’s Market became a bi-annual tradition, once in the spring and once in the fall, to raise awareness of the prevalence of food insecurity on campus and normalize the need for food as a source of support in college, just like any other support colleges provide students. In an effort to reach more students more often, the team downscaled the BFFM into the Baylor Mobile Food Pantry, a monthly food distribution that served 400-700 students out of a box truck in a campus-adjacent church parking lot.
The Baylor Free Farmer’s Market catalyzed the working group efforts on campus, which were also supported by quantitative and qualitative data that pointed to the need. A graduate student on the Working Group, Jorge Vielledent, imagined, raised funding for, and launched “The Fridge” a network of mini-fridges across campus that had ready-to-eat food for students who were on campus late studying or needed food between classes.
Fall 2017, Michelle Cohenour, the Senior Director of The Center for Academic Success and Engagement, developed a formal proposal in partnership with the working group to create a self-shop food pantry on campus- The Store. The Store opened just a few months later in December 2017. The Store now has a formal partnership with the Central Texas Food Bank and serves hundreds of students each semester.
The working group also partnered with the University food service provider to develop a swipe donation program for students to donate unused meal swipes to students in need of a meal, as well as heavily discounted grab-and-go meal options that are affordable.
Baylor has institutionalized many of these efforts, including hiring dedicated staff to advance the efforts to ensure all students on campus have access to healthy food, and the working group continues to meet to ensure a collective effort to meet students’ food needs is advanced across campus.
