Advancing the UCSC Road Map to Student Food Security
The University of California office of the President and UC Santa Cruz are committed to reducing food insecurity by 50% in 2025. Donate to help us achieve this goal. Watch our benefit event kick-off event video here too!
Overview and Project Context
In 2016 the University of California reported that more than 44% of undergraduates and 26% of graduate students were experiencing low and very low food insecurity across all 10 campuses. At our campus it was found that 48% of UCSC undergraduates were facing food insecurity. As a result of these findings, UC Santa Cruz has worked to address student food insecurity through programs and initiatives led by the Center for Agroecology and the Dean of Students Office with initial support from President Janet Napolitano’s Global Food Initiative, followed by funding from the state legislature, supplemented by campus-level internal resources and donor giving to address student food and housing insecurity.
In 2021-2022, the Center for Agroecology grew more than 38,000 pounds of organic produce and operated support and access sites on campus with 50 student staff and more than 150 interns. Through Center for Agroecology and Dean of Students Office programs, efforts to support students' basic needs served more than 6,396 unique students, or 30% of all UCSC students. While food served as a springboard, over time the nature of basic needs programming has expanded to include housing, crisis management, financial aid literacy, transportation, mental health and well-being. Systemwide and campus-level research affirms the positive impact of basic needs services have on access, affordability, persistence, academic performance, sense of belonging, time to degree, and graduation rates of both undergraduate and graduate students.
Advancing the UCSC Road Map to Student Food Security
Building on this success, the UC Regents have identified goals and recommendations for basic needs efforts across all 10 campuses, including reducing food and housing insecurity by 50% by 2025. In 2022 UCSC Trustees approved a gift toward supporting further strategic conversations and planning in 2022-2023 in order to introduce a Road Map of key dimensions and activities that will increase support efforts for student basic needs services and programs informed by the primary UC Regent goals. The board unanimously approved the support of this project.
Since fall 2022, project team members and affiliates have been convening undergraduate and graduate students, staff, faculty, as well as community partners and agencies to inform UCSC’s Road Map to Student Food Security. Findings and input on the emergent dimensions will be featured at a June 2, 2023 benefit to support next two years of working toward acheiving the 2025 UC Regents aforementioned goals. In fact, according to this year’s basic needs report to the UC Regents, UCSC is serving more than 9,000 unique students (see Figure 3, pg. 6) while building a clearer assessment of how to further impact and improve student food security and basic needs with this project!
The project has identified the following Road Map Dimensions to Advance Student Food Security and Basic Needs:
Field to Plate Food Security
Across the UCSC campus, students engage in field and kitchen internships; plant, harvest, and access free, organic, farm-fresh produce at a variety of Basic Needs distribution sites, including a twice a week pop-up market; and come into a non-transactional cafe space that integrates student leadership development and co-curricular activities. The cafe serves more than 250 students a day, offering fresh-pressed juices, salads, and a revolving menu of culturally relevant dishes all made with seasonal crops from our student-staffed campus farm and local farms and vendors from the Santa Cruz Farmers’ Market Association. The Foodways Fund supports this work through student positions, ingredient sourcing, equipment innovation, and ensuring the Center for Agroecology cultivates a sustainable and equity-driven vision for nourishing food-insecure students and their dependents from the field to the produce bag and prepared plate.
Learn more about this Road Map dimension»
Expanding Access and Pantry Resources from the Redwood Free Market and Beyond
Incorporating sourcing from Second Harvest Food Bank to fresh and prepared items locally sourced, the Redwood Free Market, located at Rachel Carson College, serves as a non-transactional market space to support students. In addition to dry, canned, frozen, and fresh food items, the market has supplemental hygiene, baby products, and other essentials to support student success. Our Dean of Students provides pantry guidance and support to snack programs across the campus. These supplemental access sites includes a range of partners including our Student Union Assembly on their direct student-to-student food distributions. This fund will ensure a broad range of supplies and ingredients for the Redwood market are available to students, including at supplemental snack support sites and student government led pantry and food distribution efforts.
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Holistic CalFresh Support for Eligible and Non-Eligible Student Populations
At present UCSC provides support for student CalFresh enrollment and renewal as well as supplemental aid for non-eligible food-insecure student populations (i.e., undocumented students, underground scholars, and international students). CalFresh and our CalFresh equivalent food support programs ensure impacted students can receive supplemental resources to ensure their food security and access to fresh and prepared food.
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Slug Support Program
The UCSC Slug Support Program promotes early intervention with students of concern to prevent culminating problems from escalating into a crisis. The goal of the Slug Support Program is to identify students of concern and develop an action plan focusing on retention through provision of support and resources to attend to their food, housing, and social/emotional well-being. In addition to one on one case management, staff work across programs and divisons that support impacted undergraduate and graduate students to maintain feedback on emergent challenges and ways to best support students before they face basic needs insecurities and crisis as well.
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Student-Centered Basic Needs Research and Assessment
Building on the foundational work of UCSC’s Blum Center, our basic needs team will continue engaging undergraduate and graduate students in applied research and assessment to advance food and housing security initiatives at UCSC. Resources will provide undergraduate and graduate student teams with paid research positions to work on participatory, student-driven basic needs research and assessment that will strengthen student resources and success. Working closely with faculty, students will gain research, analysis, and communication skills while documenting our Foodways progress.
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Join our crowdfunding to support the Road Map efforts here.
