As Andre Acra walks past a construction site for a new luxury apartment complex on his way to class, he can’t help but feel resentment toward the plethora of upscale housing juxtaposed with the daily struggle to find an affordable meal.
Acra, a rising junior at the University of Wisconsin from Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, is just one of the many students who are discouragingly confronted by the expensive grocery prices at UW.
“I think I bought a small container of blueberries for $6 at Capitol Centre,” Acra said. “If you really want to eat healthy and have a nutritious diet as a student, it’s really difficult and it’s really expensive, too. Everything adds up.”
Despite the flourishing and dynamic climate of Madison, students navigating the metropolitan campus often face frustration due to the lack of affordable and accessible food options. Trader Joe’s, Fresh Market and Capitol Centre Market are the closest grocery stores to campus.
But, students do not feel that these scanty options satisfy their budget or dietary needs. Fresh Market and Capitol Centre are known for being overpriced, and while Trader Joe’s offers budget-friendly prices, its location is inconvenient for most students who don’t have access to a car.
Acra is an active member of the Food Recovery Network, a student organization that tackles food waste issues and insecurity on campus by recovering leftover food from dining halls and repurposing it into warm, buffet-style meals every Tuesday and Friday.
“I became interested in the organization because I saw it as an opportunity to engage with the community,” Acra says. “I liked that it was a consistent effort to mitigate food insecurity. For instance, it wasn’t just a one-off event, like organizing a dinner once a semester or once a year. It was a chance to provide the community with regular meals twice a week.”
The FRN combats food waste by collecting items that would otherwise be discarded. While its primary food source is leftovers from the university dining halls, FRN also collects food from other community organizations such as the Pyle Center, Healthy Food For All and The People’s Farm. If there is leftover food from a meal, FRN provides plastic containers for attendees to take food home.
Most on-campus resources that provide affordable and nutritious foods to community members are organized by students like Acra. But, this student-led approach makes it challenging to expand outreach and inform people about available resources.
“I feel like you have to do your own research to find these sources,” Acra says. “I probably would have never heard of Open Seat, Food Recovery Network or similar organizations if I wasn’t interested in food justice and actively looking for this type of information, not to mention the students who may not recognize they are food insecure.”
The accessibility to affordable food, coupled with students’ desire to take matters into their own hands by forming or seeking student organizations to address issues, raises concerns about the resources available to students — especially as luxury apartment buildings continue to be approved and UW admits more students than it can accommodate.
“Entering college, I didn’t really know much about food insecurity,” Acra said. “I thought that it only affected people who were homeless or unemployed. But sometimes food insecurity can go unnoticed. Students may not know they are food insecure.”
Acra highlighted a difficult truth — college food insecurity is often hidden and goes unnoticed. For example, a student might struggle to afford a nutritious meal due to high rent costs or lack of access to a grocery store that offers healthy food options.
These situations exemplify food insecurity, a significant issue because inadequate nutrition, such as not eating enough or primarily consuming cheap, processed foods, can negatively impact students’ mental health and academic performance.
In response to the growing issue of food insecurity on campus and its alarming effects on physical and mental well-being, students have initiated a petition urging the university to create a full-time administrative position dedicated to addressing this long-standing concern.
“I think having someone dedicated to the roles we discussed — like making it easier for students to find campus food resources and helping new student organizations get started, as well as partnering with established organizations would be super helpful,” Acra says.
Alongside his involvement in the Food Recovery Network, Acra is the president of another student organization called the Mission Box, a 24/7 community pantry reliably stocked with nutritious food items. The pantry helps sustain people throughout the day until they can have a substantial meal, like the dinners provided by FRN.
“Although we’ve collaborated with the Food Recovery Network multiple times, the Mission Box provides community members with pantry items, as opposed to full meals,” Acra says. “Creating this pantry was important to me because I knew a lot of the food pantries and distribution centers in the area work on limited hours.”
Similar to the Food Recovery Network and Mission Box, several other organizations in the Madison area combat food insecurity. A few include:
- The People’s Farm
- Slow Food UW
- The Grow Program
- UW Frozen Meals Program
- Campus Food Shed
- The Open Seat Food Pantry
- Healthy Food For All (off-campus)
For a more detailed and comprehensive list of resources, check out this food resource directory created by UW junior Chloe Shomo. This directory is designed to support food-insecure students, especially during winter break when dining halls have closed.
Excerpt (for digital version): As the new school year approaches, food insecurity looms large for many UW students. In response to this persistent concern, student-led organizations are working diligently to ensure access to nutritious and affordable food on campus.