Monday, September 23, 2019

The Academic Senate Committee on Committee on Food Insecurity of the Academic Senate met on Monday, September 23, 2019 1.15 p.m., Pantry Area, Student Union

Committee Members in Attendance:

Dr. Emily Tai (Chairperson), Social Sciences/History; Dr. Amy Traver, Social Sciences; Dr. Jun Shin, Chemistry; Dr. Christopher Roblodowski, Biological Sciences and Geology; Professor Ashlee Klepper, Speech and Theatre

Liaisons in Attendance:

Vice-President Brian Kerr (Student Affairs, Administrative Liaison)

Ms. Ronnie Weprin (Development Office, Administrative Liaison)

Mr. Jonathan Chin (Guest, Share by Teaching)

Professor Jonathan Cornick (Steering Committee Liaison; Mathematics and Computer Sciences

Business:

The meeting was called to order at 1.15 PM

After members introduced themselves, Mr. Jonathan Chin explained two initiatives launched to combat food insecurity by his organization, Share by Teaching:  a cellular telephone/computer application that enables students to share food available in unused meal plans at various colleges and universities, and to access other food distribution; and a project to modify Vending Machines for Food distribution.  While the latter project is being piloted at Hunter College and The New School, the application has been downloaded for use at 200 colleges and universities.  Mr. Chin entertained questions from members of the Committee and Vice-President Brian Kerr.  The discussion that followed Mr. Chin’s presentation also considered the question of data collection from students who are accessing the pantry.  At the current time, what is counted is number of discrete uses of the pantry, as distinct from numbers of students who may access the pantry more than once weekly.  (As of Monday, October 7, Mr. Chin sent the links for the Share Meals Application to Professor Tai.)

Prior to the meeting, Dr. Amy Traver had shared the results of her ongoing outreach to Temple University's Hope Center to find out more information on: 1) best practices related to student privacy and food pantry use, and 2) ways that our food pantry might best access food.   Dr. Traver recommended two resources that she found in the course of this research:

The Hope Lab Guide and Toolkit Website which contains not only several suggestions for raising awareness about Food Insecurity on campus, but several position papers on such issues as the expansion of SNAP benefits for college students

Sarah Goldrick-Rab, Distributing Emergency Aid to College Students: Recommendations and Sample Distribution Protocol

Dr. Traver had also reached out to the College and University Food Bank Alliance and shared a particularly helpful pamphlet, Running a Campus Food Pantry.

Dr. Traver and other members of the Committee discussed the possibility of using a vendor other than Amazon.  Professor Tai indicated that she had found comparable pricing at Costco and Amazon, and that the delivery policies seemed less convenient; Vice-President Kerr described current delivery procedures working with the Mailroom and Central Receiving.  Professor Klepper described some special benefits that were available for ordering from Stop and Shop.  Ms. Weprin described her research regarding the possible use of Peapod, which, unlike Costco, requires no membership fee.

Vice-President Kerr’s office will be working with Single Stop to administer $10 disbursements which will be applied to the tigercards of needy students upon application to Single Stop.  This program will be jointly funded by Petrie Money and money allocated to CUNY in the New York City budget to address food insecurity at CUNY.  Mr. Chin recommended that this program be promoted as widely as possible, given the extra city dollars.

Action Items:

Dr. Amy Traver would be going to the supermarket and generating a list, working from a previous list generated by Dr. Zinger and relayed to Professor Tai, regarding items that could be ordered for the Pantry;

Ms. Weprin would be ordering a few items from Peapod to see how their delivery procedures and food quality compared to Amazon’s.

There will be an effort to coordinate deliveries for Thursdays so that Professor Tai can unpack deliveries, with the assistance of Phi Theta Kappa students as needed.

Ms. Weprin will also do a “walkthrough” to recommend possible reorganization of Pantry space.  It was suggested that a member of the Committee might reach out to faculty in the Department of Art and Photography for a spring service-learning project that would focus upon crafting attractive signage for different food-group offerings to promote nutritious food choices.

Phi Theta Kappa will promote a drive for items that are more difficult to order from vendors: specifically Buckwheat and Whole Wheat Pasta products; Fresh dry beans; and shopping bags.

The meeting was adjourned at 2.20 P.M.

Respectfully submitted,

Emily S. Tai

Chair

Respectfully submitted,

Emily S. Tai
Committee on Committee on Food Insecurity of the Academic Senate, Secretary

Minutes typed on September 27, 2019