Support, Engagement, & Advocacy: Everything you need to know about the LUSU Food Resource Centre

The Argus met with the Food Resource Centre Coordinator, Sierra Garofalo, to discuss the centre and get you the inside scoop on the food support and resources available on campus!

What is the Food Resource Centre (FRC)?

The LUSU Food Resource Centre (FRC), formerly known as the LUSU Food Bank, offers students emergency food support, education, and programming. It is a safe, stigma-free environment that provides students on campus with nutritional, culturally diverse, and dietary accommodating foods. 

 In June 2022, the Food Resource Centre celebrated its Grand Opening with a fully renovated and transformed space, new programming, and a full-time coordinator.

The Food Resource Centre, UC- 2014 B / Images courtesy of Sierra Garofalo.

Sierra Garofalo, the Food Resource Centre coordinator, explained how the position perfectly aligns with her values. Sierra’s master’s research involves exploring and describing students working on student food insecurity at Lakehead University. As such, Sierra has been able to develop new programs and remodel the FRC based on her own experience as a student advocate and her research as a master’s student. 

 Sierra shares that “the aim of the centre is to break down the stigma that surrounds accessing emergency food supports by creating a welcoming environment for students.” 

The Food Resource Centre offers three levels of support: Emergency food support, Student Engagement and community-based responses, and Advocacy. 

EMERGENCY FOOD SUPPORT:

Grocery Pick-Up/The Pantry

Students can access the Grocery Pick-up service by emailing the Food Resource Centre at FRC@lusu.ca. Emergency food support is available for students to access once every two weeks. Sierra explained that they decided to make the Grocery pick-up available to students bi-weekly based on availability. 

“We’re already struggling to keep the shelves stocked [...], And we want to make sure that every student has access to at least something,” shared Sierra, “But I do know, like at the college, for example, they only let students use the food bank once a semester. […] And so I didn’t want it to be like that, to make sure that students had access on a somewhat regular basis. So that’s how we finally decided to do it once every two weeks.”

Upon visiting the Food Resource Centre (The Pantry), students will be asked to provide their name and Student ID card. Their information is kept confidential; the centre requires this information to track students’ visits. 

Images courtesy of Sierra Garofalo.

The Good Food Box

Once a month, students can order a box of fresh fruits and veggies through the Good Food Box program. The Northwestern Ontario Women’s Centre administers this service, and LUSU and the Food Security Committee provide funding to subsidize the boxes, so it only costs $5 per student. 

Good Food Boxes. / Images courtesy of Sierra Garofalo.

The sign-up link to order a Good Food Box is posted in the weekly LUSU newsletter on the second Friday of each month. Boxes will be available for pick up the following week. Please note that there are limited boxes available and sign-ups happen quickly. 

 “The first 30 students that signed up can get a box. We sold out this week in 5 minutes,” shared Sierra when discussing the November Good Food Box sign-ups. “The statistics are alarming in terms of, like, how quickly [students sign up].”

 An infographic in the Food Resource Centre indicates the prevalence and severity of food insecurity across Canadian universities, including Lakehead University. 

Infographic courtesy of The Food Resource Centre.

The Food Resource Centre offers other food support services to combat food insecurity on campus. On the last Thursday of each month, the FRC runs The People’s Potato– a hot lunch for students starting at noon. 

Also, Aramark sponsors Free Soup Fridays at the Food Resource Centre every Friday. Students can stop in at 12 pm on Fridays for a hot lunch.  

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AND COMMUNITY-BASED RESPONSES 

The Food Resource Centre also works to empower and encourage students to get involved through educational workshops, programs, and volunteer and leadership opportunities. 

Some programs include Chopped U cooking classes (monthly cooking classes) and monthly Food Forums. The Food Forums are discussions on different food-related topics. In October, the FRC hosted a workshop with EcoSuperior on how to make beeswax wrap, a more sustainable alternative to plastic wrap. The FRC also recently collaborated with Pride to decorate cupcakes and learn how food insecurity and body image issues can disproportionately impact the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

From left to right: Chopped U cooking class, Taste the Rainbow cupcake-making workshop, Beeswax wrapping workshop. / Images courtesy of Sierra Garofalo.

Sierra explained that these workshops and programs aim to “have open dialogue and conversations while doing an activity that’s more lighthearted.” 

Sign-ups for Food Forums and events through the FRC are available on their Instagram page @lusufoodresourcecentre and the LUSU newsletter. 

The Food Resource Centre is always in need of volunteers as well. Anyone interested in volunteering can visit the following link: https://www.lusu.ca/volunteer and click “food resource centre”.

ADVOCACY

The third level of support offered by the Food Resource Centre is Advocacy. The FRC works to bring awareness to the more significant issues of food insecurity (high cost of living, tuition rates, etc.) and advocates for accessible, affordable, culturally-diverse, nutritious, and sustainable foods on campus. 

For example, the FRC recently hired a sustainable foods assistant who will oversee planning for the sustainable garden and look at ways to implement sustainability within the centre and Lakehead University as a whole. 

Please note the Food Resource Centre will be closed from December 19th to January 9th for the Winter break. Although the centre will not be open, emergency food support is still available within the community. The RFDA and 211 North are offering holiday hampers for those in need. Registration occurs now until December 13th by calling 211. Hampers will be distributed in early December.