The University of Wisconsin is hosting its first Swipe Drive through the Wisconsin Union, RecWell and University Housing from Oct. 4 to Oct. 11 to support the Badger Fare program.
Students will have the opportunity to donate a dollar when making a purchase with their WisCard across campus. All proceeds will go directly to the Badger Fare program, which is hosted within the Dean of Students Office in collaboration with the Division of Continuing Studies.
Badger Fare is a program that connects food-insecure students with campus and community resources. It also provides students funds to purchase food on campus, according to the Badger Fare webpage.
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The program preloads $75 to eligible students’ WisCards once per academic year that can be used at restaurants at Memorial Union and Union South, Student Affairs Director of Communications Darcy Wittberger said.
“The reason for this is so that it does not impact a student’s financial aid,” Wittberger explained. “If a student is ‘gifted’ funds then it counts toward their whole package. We are trying to not give funds to a student that then impacts other areas of need.”
Badger Fare’s mission is “connecting students who are dealing with temporary and ongoing food insecurity with campus and community resources for long-term support, while providing immediate funds to purchase food on campus,” according to their brochure.
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Connor Raboine and Raven Hall are two of the UW students behind the Swipe Drive, a fundraiser that is backed by Swipe Out Hunger. Swipe Out Hunger is a non-profit organization that seeks to end student hunger nationwide, according to their website.
The organization tailors fundraising events to the needs of each school, Hall said. Getting involved with Badger Fare allowed Raboine and Hall to help organize the Swipe Drive at UW.
Raboine said a graduate student involved with Badger Fare had been trying to start the fundraiser last year, but the COVID-19 pandemic changed their plans. The student passed the idea along to Raboine and Hall.
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“Since then, it’s through partnerships with the Dean of Students Office and the Food Justice Collective and the swelling of student support that it’s really taken off,” Raboine said.
Though Raboine and Hall don’t have a specific dollar amount in mind as a goal, they would love to beat Penn State’s record of $29,000 in one Swipe Drive, Raboine said.
More importantly, they want to make students and the larger community aware of the Badger Fare program, Raboine said.
The Badger Fare program is just one of several organizations on campus seeking to help students with food insecurity. Food insecurities in college are not uncommon, and it’s a holistic effort to help end college student hunger, according to Raboine.
“I’m hoping that this pushes the university forward and onto the student body to realize that experiencing food insecurity is not an uncommon issue on campus,” Hall said.
