Emma heard about GreenHouse when it first started up in 2013, but last fall, she decided it was time to get out of her comfort zone and throw herself into a new challenge. She didn’t have a particular idea in mind when she talked with Director Tania Del Matto and Coordinator Sean Campbell about joining GreenHouse for the winter term, but by the time she was accepted, she recognized that her passion for food and hunger was where she wanted to focus. She was also interested in looking at ways UWaterloo could adopt new models of community engagement around food.
Unlike many GreenHouse students, Emma’s vision is one of capacity building for an existing charitable group — the UWaterloo Federation of Students Food Bank, which has been in operation for more than 15 years and which serves more than 500 students each term.
Inspired by new approaches to food advocacy by The Stop in Toronto and fruitful dialogue with Meal Exchange in Toronto, Emma began to examine the need to address larger issues underlying the function of the student food bank.
“Currently, we function more as an emergency model that provides temporary relief to students. However, we want to bring larger issues such as student poverty, hunger, health, and debt to students’ and the administration’s attention. We know that providing temporary relief does not solve the problem and we need to consider strategies on campus to provide long-term relief to students who need food assistance.”
Emma became excited as she talked about this challenge with people at GreenHouse. “I’ve worked with a lot of barriers over the years, so it was very nice to have people with a lot of optimism and ideas for solutions. They had resources and knew people I could talk to in order to make this a success.”
One fresh extension to the food bank program that Emma wanted to try was a Communal Dining event in the Student Life Centre, where a meal featuring fresh, local food (especially vegetables) could be provided to students, who could discuss issues such as student poverty, debt, health, and the future of the Food Bank while eating.
The event moved quickly from the ideation stage as a result of more fruitful conversations. Emma talked with GreenHouse and Meal Exchange coordinators about possible fundraising opportunities. On January 27, Emma asked her boss, who is a member of the Awesome Foundation, when the local association would have its next meeting to consider pitches — “tonight” was the answer. Emma scrambled to prepare her pitch and was astonished and delighted when her Communal Dining event was chosen as the pitch for which the philanthropists would provide funding.
“This Communal Dining event is important to initiate conversation about these hard-hitting issues and normalizing these concerns among students — making it easier to discuss — and eventually, easier to propose solutions. I’m so glad that people are excited about this idea and are willing to help it happen.”
- by Susan Fish