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Opinion
If students are hungry — and many of them are in Canada — they are also not learning. Here’s what must be done.
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Should students eat? Let’s start there, because research shows that university students are struggling three times as much as Canada’s general population to reliably access healthy food. This food insecurity drives chronic diseases, mental illness and poor academic performance. Education and food are human rights and cannot continue to be in conflict.
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While 20 per cent of Canada’s population struggles with food insecurity, 57 per cent of university students are unable to buy enough food, according to a 2021 survey (before the surge in inflation) of more than 6,000 students from 13 Canadian universities.
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According to Second Harvest, Canada’s largest surplus food donation non-profit, there is no shortage of food in Canada; in fact, we waste 58 per cent of it. Students studying full time do not have the capacity to also work the hours necessary to generate enough income to pay for tuition, rent and food. So, food comes last.
Government tuition loans? They are inadequate for most students who use them, with 64 per cent saying they are unable to afford food, according to the 2021 survey.
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Beyond tuition, there are two systemic factors making university students disproportionately more vulnerable: institutional exploitation and ill-informed liability fears.
It is not an exaggeration to say students are often exploited by their universities for cheap and free labour in the form of unpaid interns, overworked and underpaid teaching or research assistants, and volunteers.
Students are also victims of food service monopolies facilitated by universities. For example, Concordia and McGill student residents must pay for mandatory meal plans, serving food that at times has been found to be spoiled and at 200 per cent markups compared to nearby supermarkets, as reported by The Link student newspaper and the CBC.
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Concordia’s student community has a proud history of providing free food through organizations such as People’s Potato and Hive Free Lunch, with the latter also offering free breakfasts as of next fall. However, institutions have shied away from food redistribution initiatives.
For over a decade, throughout my three Concordia degrees, I have witnessed many students try to convince Concordia’s administration to allow a community fridge on campus, to no avail because of liability concerns in case of sickness among users. And yet, the so-called Good Samaritan provision in Quebec’s civil code shields those who donate food in good faith from liability.
In January, enuf — the enterprise I lead — set up Concordia’s first community fridges (we bought two) in partnership with the Hive Café, whose autonomy over its own spaces eliminated the need to ask the institution for permission. Our vision is to set up community fridges on student campuses across Montreal.
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The inspiration, and namesake, of the inaugural fridge is Megan Clarke, who worked four jobs to study at Concordia — where she also launched the Food Cycle initiative in 2019 to address food insecurity for others.
The fridges are stocked by untouched surplus food from events where enuf’s green brigades — students paid a living wage — are hired to provide waste-sorting education (see them in action at the Montreal Jazz Festival next week).
Since January, enuf’s fridges have served over 850 units of surplus food, saving students over $3,000 — six times the cost of the fridges.
Families and taxpayers are entrusting students to university stewardship to learn. But if students are hungry — and many of them are — they are also not learning. One could even argue that the current university environment is doing those struggling students harm, driving long-term mental illness and chronic disease.
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For universities to honour this trust and their academic missions, they must overcome the entrenched institutional indifference to the basic needs of their own community. This starts with properly paying the students for the valuable work they do, and ensuring that campus food services are more affordable than the alternatives.
Keroles B. Riad is CEO of the enuf BCorp social enterprise and a Concordia valedictorian.
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