Two University of Guelph students have created a program that provides food security while contributing to lowering food waste levels on campus by donating food that would otherwise be thrown away. It's known as MealCare.
“MealCare is an organisation that was founded at McGill University by students there, and it has sort of a dual mission,” said Kiana Gibson, co-founder of the MealCare Guelph chapter. “The first part of it is to reduce food waste, and the second part as almost a byproduct is to address food insecurity. The students who started at McGill did it with the specific intention of reducing food waste on campus.”
Gibson and fellow co-founder David Sahai met during their freshman year and realized they had a shared vision to help increase food security in the community.
“We had the idea in 2018,” Sahai said. “It took a good four to six months before we actually did our first donation.”
Since then, MealCare Guelph has donated 16,000 lbs. of food to various places like Lakeside Hope House and the Welcome In Drop-In Centre. The food donated comes from leftovers from kitchens around campus.
The initiative is run purely by student volunteers. Gibson and Sahai their success comes from the students who put in the time and dedication to promote food security and reduce food waste.
“Without our team we could not have done what we wanted to do and achieve,” Sahai said. “This was the result of two students on campus who saw the ability for change… I really hope that this provides an example where students can make change on campus where perhaps they might not have thought it was possible.”
The pandemic has placed barriers on MealCare’s operations, but both Gibson and Sahai said it’s also shown a light on where the community can be doing more.
“Food production was being scaled back considerably on the university campus because there were far fewer students on the university campus,” said Sahai. “Then we had some recipients actually have to sort of close their doors to our donations – not because they wanted to but just because of public health regulations and guidelines and the fact that they weren't actually going to be able to donate in that capacity anymore.”
However, both Sahai and Gibson are impressed at the dedication demonstrated by the team of volunteers that contribute to MealCare Guelph.
“Everyone takes little pieces of the puzzle, and even during COVID It's been really amazing to see how all these students who have no obligation to do MealCare contribute,” Gibson said.
“It's Dave and I, who have no technical authority over our friends. They just show up because they want to be there and they care about it and I think that's really cool. It's really shown that students who want to make change can do so and they can find a way.”
