By Chinonso Maduforo

The SGA funded a year-long program last week to address food insecurity among students at the University of Maryland.

The Emergency Meal Fund provides 166 meal cards, over 1,660 meals, to students who meet the criteria. This program is in response to a survey conducted by the Counseling Center Research Unit, among other departments, which found that 20 percent of students were in situations that fit the definition of food insecurity.

Among some of those factors were whether students worried that food would run out, ate less food than they needed in order to have food later or didn’t eat at all in order to preserve the food they have, according to an SGA document.

The SGA allocated $5,000 to the program, which was started by Chief of Staff Doron Tadmor. The program is intended to work with The Campus Pantry to provide meals and food supplies to students in need. It will also assist in reducing the likely effects of food insecurity on students’ well-being and academic performance, such as “poorer physical health, lower self-esteem, and higher levels of distress, anxiety, depression, anger, and loneliness,” according to preliminary results released by the Pantry.

While the program may be beneficial for many students, it would be counterproductive if students were unaware of the program.

To prevent this, Bart Hipple, the assistant director for Marketing and Communications in Dining Services, stated that the cards have been placed in “strategic places where students tend to go to seek help and seek relief.” According to Hipple, the cards can be found in The Counseling Center, The Health Center, The Campus Pantry, and with the director of Dining Services.

Hipple further stated that the goal is to eliminate food insecurity for the whole campus. It started with a change in dining plans, which allowed students to eat buffet-style rather than having a cap on how much food they get per semester with the old point system. Hipple stated that the 20 percent of students facing food insecurity tend to be students without a dining plan.

Mimi Kathapa, a junior information sciences major, believes that food plays a big part in how students function.

“It’s pretty important just because you do have to feed yourself to have the energy for your day, to fulfill a full day,” said Kathapa.

Jerry Onyeador, a research technician in the cell biology and genetics department, never knew that food insecurity was an issue for some students. He appreciates that the university is lending a hand to students in need. “I think I like the proactive nature of it because I’d imagine that if students are actually having issues with food, it might be something that’s difficult for them to talk about.”

This is a challenge that Dining Services has thought about. Hipple stated that “people have to be willing to ask for help, and frequently people are reluctant to do that.” The hope is that the department establishes targeted ways to reach students who are in need of assistance. This is why The Campus Pantry “is in a fairly private spot that is central to the campus, where students can come and go pretty discreetly as they need to,” Hipple said.