On Wednesday, March 27, students from the University of Massachusetts went to the Massachusetts Statehouse in Boston to lobby for Bill H.4453. The trip was organized by the UMass chapter of MASSPIRG.
Bill H.4453, “An Act establishing the hunger-free campus initiative” aims to reduce college student hunger. If passed, it will provide funding to institutions of higher education with assistance for food insecure students.
“I went because [food insecurity is] a very big issue I feel like a lot of people don’t think of,” Meghan Welch said, a 19-year-old freshman legal studies major who was part of the group.
Welch believes many members of the community are disillusioned by the University’s No. 1 dining status and aren’t aware of how prevalent food insecurity is among the campus population.
“However, there’s a large portion of students at UMass … that don’t know where their next meal is coming from,” Welch said.
According to a 2019 study from the Massachusetts Public Higher Education System, 31 percent of college students reported that they had faced food insecurity within 30 days of being surveyed. The study was of 13 schools in the Massachusetts Public Higher Education System. UMass did not participate in this study.
“Food is a human right,” Miro Leeb, an intern for MASSPIRG, said about the importance of the bill. Leeb was also advocating for the bill in Boston.
According to their website, MASSPIRG is a Massachusetts-based advocacy group that organizes and lobbies for solutions to various causes, like climate change, consumer protections and food insecurity.
Kundayi Mazando, a freshman political science and economics major, was also a part of the group.
“Anyone who goes to UMass and eats the food there knows that they always have this unlimited amount of food,” Mazando said. “As soon as something runs out, they just keep adding another thing.” If the bill passes, she would like to see the school use money from the funds for a food pantry on campus.
The goal of the event was to demand legislators to increase the amount of money allocated from the initiative from $1 million to $2 million, explained MASSPIRG Board Chair Isabel Rojas, a microbiology student.
Rojas added that there are ways for hungry students to get immediate help, for example, from the Amherst Survival Center and UMass’ emergency supplemental meal program. The Amherst Survival Center serves free meals from 12-2.30 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and is open to anyone.
Students can find the UMass emergency meals program on the UMass website. Through the program, students can automatically add 3 days’ worth of meal swipes onto their student ID. “The supplemental meal program is a one-time short term solution,” the website says.
“I mean (the emergency supplemental meal program) is a good plan, but I think it’s not a long-term plan, obviously,” Rojas said. She also would like to see UMass open a food pantry for its students.
Representative Mindy Domb, who represents the third Hampshire country district where UMass Amherst is located, cosponsored the bill. She was not available to answer questions.
Mazando thinks that ensuring students have food is important because “we all need it to live … having access to basic things like food, water, shelter, are vital for just simply being human.”
“If you can’t eat, then how can you study?” Mazando asked.
Andrew Venditti can be reached at [email protected].
