Growing Food Security – Page 2 – The Struggle is Real: student food and housing insecurity at OSU

May 30, 2018

Gettin’ to know the Garden

by Anne Snell

Did you know the HSRC has a garden? That’s right! Just to the East of the building are 7 rows of soil, and two raised beds. (Or, if you’re directionally challenged like me, the side with the 30-minute parking spots.) There is also a mini orchard which includes dwarf-sized fruit trees like fig, apple, pear, and persimmon. The garden began in the 2016-2017 school year as part of the Growing Food Security Initiative between the HSRC and the Student Sustainability Initiative (SSI).

Two of the garden beds, growing baby kale and pepper plants

If it doesn’t look like much now, it’s because this will actually be the garden’s first year producing a full season of crops! It takes time for well-producing gardens to form. The Organic Growers Club grew the starts from seed to help us save money. This also helps make sure we get the varieties people want to eat. The soil conditions are constantly improving, so in a few years, they will be even more nutrient rich than they are now. More nutrients in the soil means more produce!

Colorful Swiss Chard is almost ready to harvest!

This year the garden, which is mostly managed by the SSI, is growing vegetables like Swiss chard, tomatoes, kale, tomatillos, bell peppers, carrots, beets, squash, and garlic. Everything grown in the garden is harvested directly for the HSRC’s Shopping Style Food Pantry nights or Fresh Food Friday. Production is slow right now, but come summer, and into the fall, we will have vegetables galore!

The apples aren’t quite ripe yet, but they will be soon!

The HSRC Community Garden isn’t just for providing fresh produce to the food pantry. It is also a learning environment, where students can get their hands dirty and help grow the food harvested from the garden. In the future we hope students can engaged in the process of growing food, both so they can give back to their community, but also so they can learn the skills required to grow your own food for themselves. The community garden we have is small, and still very young, but growin’ strong!

April 11, 2018July 9, 2018

HSRC PRESENTS: COOKING CLASSES!

Eating is one of life’s greatest pleasures. In an ideal world, healthy and delicious food would be all around and easily accessible to everyone. But we all know that it is not a perfect world and there are several barriers keeping us from eating nourishing food. Money and time should not be among the reasons. As college students with very busy schedules and not a whole lot of money, making delicious and healthy meals can be challenging.If you can gain a few more kitchen skills, you can be creative with the ingredients available to you and make some healthy and fun meals.

The cooking classes this Spring at the HSRC are FREE and focused on empowering the participants with basic cooking skills. The recipes that will be used are easy, cheap and quick, because yes, we always have tons of homework and deadlines to beat, but of course we need to eat healthy yummy food too!

Rice Every Which Way- April 17th, 5-7pm.

Versatile ingredients save meals time and money! Rice is definitely one of them. Boiled rice on its own is not very difficult to make, but it can be pretty bland and definitely get old. In this class we will be playing around with herbs, spices and vegetables (more vegetables=more flavor) to make rice healthy, tasty and fun. The other amazing thing about rice is that you can make a lot of it over the weekend and make different meals from it, all week long to save a lot of time. Rice is one of those staples that you can have for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Ramen Revamped-May 3rd, 5-7pm.

We have all lived off one too many Ramen bowls at one point in our lives. They are quick and easy, and don’t require any cooking skill but most of all they are cheap! while we have certainly come to accept Ramen as part of ‘the college experience,’ we can have fun making it healthier, tasty and more nourishing.

Knead Bread? May 15th, 5-7pm.

When you consider the simple ingredients that form the foundation of all breads—flour, yeast, salt and water—it’s truly remarkable how many varied products can be made from it. Bread baking can often seem very intimidating and complicated. This class will be focused on stove top breads, which can be an easier and cheaper alternative.We want to empower you to feed yourself, and take your baking skills to the next level!

Cheap and Gourmet- May 31st, 5-7pm.

Good and cheap! Eating healthy and tasty food while on a budget can be a real hustle. This class is designed to explore ways you can create an amazing meal with simple affordable ingredients. Improvisation is the soul of great cooking! Our hope is after this class you will be able to tailor things to your taste and preference all while on a budget!

Registration is recommended not required. Click here to sign up! The classes will be held at Avery Lodge.

We are looking forward to cooking with you!

January 30, 2018February 1, 2018

In One Snap, Students got SNAP

The Human Services Resource Center and Student Sustainability Initiative aim to reduce student hunger with “One Snap, Get SNAP.”

On January 19th, 2018, over the course of four hours, 53 students, in both graduate and undergraduate studies, filtered through to begin their applications for SNAP benefits, otherwise known as food stamps. Application processes can be intimidating. As we heard from one student, “I’ve attempted to apply before but never completed the application due to not being sure about some of the answers.” To help with the application process three SNAP experts from the OSU Extension SNAP Outreach team and the Oregon Department of Human Services were on hand to assist as needed. Staff had both paper applications, and provided laptops so students can complete the online application if that was their preference.

A student is seated at a computer, an adult looks over her shoulder pointing at the screen to help her get SNAP benefits. — A DHS representative helps a student apply for SNAP benefits.

Roughly 36% of OSU students reported not having enough financial resources on the 2017 Campus Inclusivity Survey. While the average student attending the event applied for benefits only for themselves, at least 5 students who responded to our follow-up survey applied for benefits for a household of two or more people. One student shared through the survey: “This was such a helpful event. I kept on putting off doing the paperwork and was worried I wouldn’t get benefits. Any questions I had were answered and I don’t have to worry as much.” Eligibility qualifications for students can be confusing, so having staff available to assist was key to the successful event.

Food was provided at the event, and 323 KIND granola bars were distributed, each affixed with stickers promoting event details prior to the 19th. An important value of the HSRC is abundance of resources, especially in regard to food. The HSRC sees the need many students experience in the form of increased Food Assistance Application numbers. Increased attendance at the multiple monthly food pantry nights at Avery Lodge, and term by term growth of the Textbook Lending Program also illustrate the growing need of students. Providing food at the event ensured that everyone who came by, at least got to eat lunch for the day.

Through the efforts of the HSRC and SSI, the students who attended “One Snap, Get SNAP” could, combined, receive upwards of $50,000 in grocery money over the course of the next six months (approximately $157 per month per person, though individuals could be eligible for up to $189 per month and those with families or dependents could see even more). While not a permanent fix to student hunger, programming and outreach for SNAP benefits helps provide students with resources that better allow them to focus on school. Providing access to these community resources on campus, where students spend a lot of their time, helps make the process for applying for SNAP benefits easier. When students aren’t worried about where their next meal is coming from they are better able to concentrate on school and make the most of their education, further enriching themselves and their communities.