Dining Services
The Sustainability, Equity, & Justice Fund Grant Program promotes sustainability by providing grants to create and implement projects that positively impact environmental, social, health, and economic practices on our campus and in our community.
Earth Day Fair Free Produce Table
Amount Awarded: $972.90
Academic Year: 2022-2023
Implementation: April 2023
Full Application: Link
Categories: Campus and Community Engagement Student Life Dining Services Procurement
This grant allowed for the purchase of bulk produce from local farms to redistribute to students at no cost during the Earth Week Fair that happened April 21st, 2023. According to Western Washington University’s Office of Basic Living, 44.7% of students struggle with some level of food insecurity as of 2021. The purpose of this project was to bring momentary aid to students who are food insecure as well as expand students' knowledge of the concept of food justice, and how it plays into the larger idea of environmental justice.
In addition to a lack of food security, many financial barriers exist for college students that restrict them from acquiring healthy, locally grown food. With this project, the team wanted to bring food directly to campus, eliminating virtually any barrier that would restrict access to clean, healthy produce. The plan was for any leftover produce to be distributed to the various food pantries on campus; however, the produce was “sold out” within an hour of their table opening.
Produce was sourced from Puget Sound Food Hub, a local digital marketplace whose mission is “to support and champion local, family scale farms by providing a direct connection with buyers in our region seeking high quality, locally produced food,” according to their website.