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Erin O’Neil, executive director of the
Campus Food Bank, says these challenges
are incredibly common. Demand for its
services has grown significantly — in
2021-2022, the food bank gave twice
as many hampers as compared to the
previous year.
Four years ago, says O’Neil, tuition
increased and the U of A lost millions
in provincial grants, resulting in fewer
resources. International students — who
make up about 70 per cent of the food
bank’s clientele — especially suffered as
they lost supports that would explain things
like the cost of groceries or how to rent an
apartment or even direct them towards the
food bank. These students also struggled
to budget appropriately because prices are
increasing so incredibly quickly.
“Food insecurity is just one piece of an
affordability puzzle. But if we can remove
the stress around food for students then
at least it lowers their stress overall and
they can have that energy to focus on
advocating for themselves in other ways,”
says O’Neil.
The Campus Food Bank has students do
price comparisons with grocery stores and
consistently the ones closest to the campus
are the most expensive. In response, the
food bank started a grocery bus service
four years ago that transports students to
several more affordable options in the city
including grocery stores, a spice centre and
a halal butcher. Talarico used the service in
the past and said it was incredibly helpful.
“It used to be a fairly lightly used service.
But the demand for it went up maybe
three times last year because of grocery
inflation,” says O’Neil. It’s especially popular
with students who are not originally from
Edmonton — so those like Talarico who
rely on public transit and have no one to
drive them to far-away stores.
Now, the Campus Food Bank, with
help from a $7,000 grant from Edmonton
Community Foundation (ECF), plans
to expand that bus service to Campus
Saint-Jean, in addition to a breakfast
program that expanded to the University’s
French campus last year. The Cinders
Fund, a family fund stewarded by ECF,
has supported the breakfast program for
the past three years and recently agreed
to double its contribution to support
programming at Campus Saint-Jean. The
ECF Small Grants program also provided
$10,000 to the food bank to pay students
professional rates to help with the design
of a pantry project. This initiative provides
24/7 access for donations and pickup of
fresh food and non-perishable items.
After COVID-19 restrictions, O’Neil
noticed a concerning trend — many
programs that had been shuttered were
struggling to come back. That, she says, is
due to several factors including about 2,000
layoffs that happened over the past three
years that affected student support staff
from course selection to financial aid to
mental health support. She started looking at
feedback and where help was most needed.
“It was apparent that Campus Saint-Jean
was getting minimal food security support
after the lockdown break. We decided the
breakfast program was the easiest first
try for the campus. Then, through that
relationship with the staff we heard that the
grocery bus had not started back up and
they didn’t have funds,” says O’Neil.
While the breakfast program is a stop,
grab-and-go type thing, it’s developed into a
social hangout at Campus Saint-Jean. That
also allows students to learn more about
the food bank and the other services they
provide, says O’Neil; and it’s something that
had been missing in the last few years.
The Campus Food Bank has been
around since 1991 when it was primarily
about providing food to graduate students.
But in the past decade, the focus has shifted
to include food education, workshops,
providing students with culturally
appropriate foods — including freshly
grown herbs — and snack stations.
“We’ve been able to [help] people who
are concerned about their food intake but
maybe are OK with getting themselves
groceries here or there. Or they don’t
know how to cook for themselves or meal
planning is tough, those sorts of things,”
says O’Neil. “We are trying to diversify
our program to support as many different
people’s situations as possible.”
At the time of the interview, Talarico was
just one week away from starting a new
job as a biostatistician at a pharmacy. She
still loves being part of the Campus Food
Bank community where she says it’s just an
incredibly welcoming space. The food bank
leads projects to determine what culturally
rich foods to include on their shelves; they
provide food and supplies like diapers to
families; and even play music that comes
from different parts of the world.
“They really care about other cultures
and welcoming different people,” says
Talarico. “I honestly love going there.”
“
 It used to be a fairly lightly used service.
But the demand for it went up maybe
three times last year because of grocery
inflation.” —Erin O’Neil, Executive Director, Campus Food Bank