Food bank use in Windsor-Essex is up — including ones serving students

Food bank usage is up across Ontario — and students in Windsor are not immune. 

The University of Windsor Student alliance runs The Food Pantry, offering everything from meat to school supplies. And, they say, they're seeing interest from students skyrocket.

The food bank has interest from between 700 and 1,000 students a week, said Ghallia Hashem, president of the University of Windsor Student Alliance, though they currently accommodate about 50 appointments per day to make sure the pantry is sustainable. 

"I have to be cognizant of the fact that with the economy as it is now and inflation as it is now, and the cost of living being so, so high for all of us, it makes sense that the need is definitely high," said Hashem. 

Part of the dramatic 300 per cent increase they've seen since the start of the student government term in May has to do with the end of the summer semester, when fewer students are on campus. 

But, she said, more students are aware of the services they offer and they're working toward making it more inviting for students to visit. 

"When you make it known that, no, it's just a fun place, you want to go take out a book, you can go borrow a book from here, people are more likely to be like, yeah, I'll just go visit the food pantry," she said. 

Students can use the food pantry by making an appointment. Once they arrive, they'll receive a bag with three vegetables, two fruits, a grain, something frozen, like meat, and a snack or treat. The pantry also has books, school supplies, menstrual products or other materials they might need. 

The Food Pantry is also in the process of rebranding, she said: they hope to have a new name next year, which Hashem says will take the stigma out of visiting even more. 

Hashem said the UWSA has a budget line allocated to the food pantry, but also receives support from the graduate students society and the university community at large. 

It's all part of their effort to make sure students have access to everything they need to perform at their best. 

"We're all at university. Clearly everyone here is competent enough to hold the potential of carrying a degree, but there's some systemic barriers that prevent students from performing to their actual highest capabilities," Hashem said.

It's not just at the University of Windsor. St. Clair College's student food bank is also seeing more need for help than ever. 

They see about 40 to 50 students per week, said Katie Rizea, the student success office coordinator. She oversees the food bank, and has for the last seven years. 

Need is on the rise, she says: She first started to see need go up right before the pandemic, and it's continued now. 

She estimates they've seen a 10 to 15 per cent increase — "I know doesn't seem like a lot. But on the scale of that, we actually do see the students, that's a pretty high number," she said.

Because of that increase, much like the University of Windsor, St. Clair also uses an appointment-based system for food bank access, though they can accommodate urgent requests when needed. 

Students receive a bag valued at about $25 once a month. If they have a child, they'll also receive a $25 grocery gift card for perishable items the food bank doesn't stock. 

 It takes into consideration their allergies. And increasingly, it'll also consider cultural preferences, Rizea said, after consultation with students.  

"A lot more rice-based things, wheat flour, kidney beans … an instant noodle, like a Mr. Noodle, but it's called Maggi, very popular in our Indian community. Those type of things they really, really thoroughly enjoy," Rizea said. 

"We're giving them all these items. If they're only going to eat four things, that's not good for anybody. We can give those four things to somebody else who might eat them, but then we also want to give them something that they'll utilize every item in that bag."

She says mostly, students are glad the resource exists. But they also get some students who are embarrassed, especially students who are using it for the first time.  

"I'm definitely used to that at this point and we've come up with a couple different ways where we can do anonymous pickups," she said. 

The food bank receives budgetary support, but is also wholeheartedly supported by the college community, Rizea said — she says they just received and were still stocking shelves with a cube truck's worth of donations from the college's paramedics program club.  

"We are an organization that is funded by the students and so it's our due diligence, our duty to provide them with these kinds of services to make sure that they're not going to class hungry, to make sure that they can go to bed hopefully with a full stomach and they can focus on what's important, which is getting their education while they're here. "