UBC students walk out of class over food insecurity

Hundreds of University of British Columbia (UBC) students are protesting a drop in funding for food security at the school by marching out of class.

It comes during a time when students say they’re seeing the school’s community fridges empty within hours and an increase in visits to the campus food bank.

UBC Sprouts is a volunteer group that provides affordable meals to students. Co-vice president Clara Sismondo says students have enough to worry without worrying about their next meal.

“How can the university expect us to study and work when we can’t eat? Being a student is already stressful,” they told CityNews.

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Students marched from the student union building on Friday afternoon to the library where the president’s office is. In part, they want continuous food security funding that rises with inflation and the size of the student body.

Isa Carlin, with the Filipinx-Canadian student group Sulong UBC, says food insecurity isn’t just a student problem.

“This is not just a problem that’s happening at UBC,” she said. “Food insecurity impacts literally every single working class person around the entire world.”

Canadians have been seeing high food prices on the grocery shelves for months with the price of meat up by almost eight per cent and dairy by almost 10 per cent.

A report from UBC’s student union says its food bank saw a 495 per cent increase in visitors from 2020.

In a statement to CityNews, associate vice-president of student housing and community services at UBC, Andrew Parr, says funding for food insecurity initiatives was not reduced during this fiscal year.

???? Food security funding update from @eshanabhangu and @danatheturdy ???? Let's keep putting pressure on UBC! pic.twitter.com/KN3YumFyC6

— AMS UBC Student Union (@AMS_UBC) October 18, 2022

However, some reports from the student newspaper, The Ubyssey, along with Sprouts, suggest a drop in the food bank budget compared to last year.

Parr adds the school is providing an additional $500,000 in funding to tackle food security on campus, “bringing the total of funding the university has dedicated toward food security-related needs this fiscal year to more than $2.4 million for both campuses.” He adds the university is looking for long-term funding to provide “ongoing food security support.”

But Sismondo doesn’t think the extra money is enough to address the problem.

“This feels like hush money. They can hear our power and they don’t want the bad press of starving students. But this one-time funding is not enough for students. We need continuous funding that rises with inflation,” they said.