Campus Food Access
Overview
The Wesley Center strives to serve the common good for all Hamline students. As part of this mission, we are pioneering initiatives to ensure all Hamline students have access to affordable, culturally appropriate, and nutritious foods. There is a growing number of resources on campus available to students as made possible through committed community partners, the Feed Your Brain (FYB) student group, and Campus Food Access AmeriCorps VISTA, Sophia Brown.
Core initiatives
Feed Your Brain
Feed Your Brain (FYB) is a student-led organization committed to advocacy and education in regards to food access and food security on Hamline's campus. They are working to create the Food Resource Center which provides resources to help students meet their basic needs in a manner that strives to uphold dignity and work towards food sovereignty.
Contact: feedyourbrain@hamline.edu
Hamline Food Resource Center
Formerly known as the "pop-up pantry," the Food Resource Center is located in West Hall 110. There, students can find free, nutritious, and culturally specific food and household items. No "proof of need" is required to take advantage of this resource and using the FRC is like using the library or gym. Students can find information about SNAP benefits, community pantries, and other information about food/basic needs resources on the Food Resource Center's Google site or in-person at the FRC.
Food Resource Center hours
Order groceries
To ensure that donations go entirely to Food Resource Center, please include a note in the "other" section, under the "designation field" of the donation form and write in: "For Food Resource Center."
Food access research
Three years ago, Feed Your Brain launched the Food Access Survey, an examination of rates of food insecurity among undergraduate students at Hamline. The 2017 survey found that the the groups with the highest rate of food insecurity are: low-income students, Pell eligible students, students of color, Muslim students, students who identify as trans or non-binary, and students who identify as having a disability or chronic illness.
Working off of the findings of the 2017 Food Access Survey, there is a collaborative, interdisciplinary class conglomerate that includes professors and courses in the fields of environmental studies, public health, digital media arts, and professional writing. Together, this group is working with three community partners, including Feed Your Brain, to facilitate focus groups on campus and to create deliverables to give back to these partners.
For more information on the Food Access Survey, contact foodaccess@hamline.edu
For more information about the interdisciplinary research group, contact: Professor Susi Keefe at skeefe03@hamline.edu