The SGA plans to fight food insecurity on campus by continuing its partnership with Beat Auburn Beat Hunger and potentially reduce food waste by implementing an app to allow students to purchase leftover food from local businesses.
Beat Auburn Beat Hunger
The SGA is once again partnering with Beat Auburn Beat Hunger, an annual food drive on campus, to raise funds for the UA food pantry, a resource overseen by Student Care and Well Being that allows students to request food assistance from the University.
BABH is a student-run campaign held annually starting seven weeks before the Iron Bowl where The University of Alabama and Auburn University compete to donate the most funds and food. UA-raised funds and food go to the West Alabama Food Bank, while Auburn’s benefit the Food Bank of East Alabama, according to BABH’s website.
BABH was started in 1994 by the Center for Service and Leadership and the West Alabama Food Bank. This is the second time the SGA has partnered with the drive.
Lainey Kluttz, a member of the SGA diversity, equity and inclusion cabinet and the director of sponsorships at BABH, said members from each of the SGA branches will compete to raise funds for BABH. The winners will participate in Pie the Presidents, where they pie leaders of their respective branches. Kluttz said the SGA raised $5,000 in 2022 and has set a $10,000 goal for this year.
SGA members will also serve at the West Alabama food bank from Oct. 30 to Nov. 3.
Kluttz said she and Izzy Boyd, the previous vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion, suggested that the two organizations cooperate to better fulfill the SGA’s goal of “students serving students.” She called the partnership her proudest work with BABH.
“I think we would be naïve to think that that problem [food insecurity] doesn’t affect our campus, too,” Kluttz said. “Food insecurity is also often an invisible issue. You can’t necessarily look at somebody and tell what their situation is.”
Rebecca Wilson, the president of BABH, said the drive also asks students to donate unused guest meal swipes to the UA food pantry. Students who are food insecure can then use these meal swipes once donated.
Wilson said the drive amassed 565,000 pounds of food for the West Alabama Food Bank and the food pantry last year while Auburn donated over 500,000 pounds to the Food Bank of East Alabama, pushing the combined total to over 1 million.
“I’m proud we can collect these foods and these funds for the food bank and that we can make a difference in that way,” Wilson said. “I’m also proud that we get to advocate for people’s security, that we get to publicize and really work with the diversity, equity and inclusion cabinet of SGA to have a week focused on educating people about food insecurity on campus.”
Too Good to Go
The SGA and the UA Environmental Council, a student organization dedicated to increasing environmental sustainability on campus, are exploring opportunities to reduce food waste. The two organizations are considering partnering with an app called Too Good To Go that focuses on reducing food waste by allowing users to purchase unsold surplus food from businesses.
The app, which covers major cities in Europe and North America, sells unused food in surprise bags for a third of the retail price of the contents. Users can only buy one from participating businesses and will not know which of the restaurant’s menu items are in the bag until after their purchase.
Teegan Mathey, the SGA director of environmental affairs, said she spoke with a representative from the company about the best ways the app could launch in Tuscaloosa, but discussions are still in the early stages. Mathey hopes to be able to launch it sometime this fall or early January.
While the price range and amount of food for each bag varies, Mathey said she usually paid $5 to $10 for each one when she lived in Chicago, with some bags containing enough to feed four people.
Teegan said she could see the app potentially expanding to dining halls to help combat food insecurity on campus if the app performs well with Tuscaloosa businesses.
“I think that it could provide a resource for even people in the greater Tuscaloosa community to try these restaurants that are priced a little higher,” Mathey said. “[You] get a lot of food for the price that you’re paying. I think it’s a good value and incentive.”
According to the app’s website, it had 75 million users and 134,000 active partner businesses as of March 2023, and it saved over 78.8 million meals in 2022.
