If you were faced with the grave choice of being hungry or homeless, what would you do?

It’s the ultimate catch-22, and a decision too many university students across Canberra are forced to make every week – whether to buy food or pay their rent.  

The ACT’s hidden poverty epidemic extends across the whole Territory, but this group of young people have been slipping through the cracks at an alarming rate.

Jessica Fordyce, 23, is the Waste and Recovery Officer at the Canberra Region Joint Organisation and has been running the Food Donation Network in the ACT since August 2021.

The ACT Government-funded program aims to connect supermarkets that have excess food with pantries that can provide food relief, and one of those places is the UCX Food Pantry.

On average, around 200 students walk through the doors of the UCX Food Pantry each week, where they can access non-perishables, recovered fresh produce, toiletries, and essential items.

“It feels lovely to be making a difference, and the best part of this whole project is just meeting the amazing volunteers and dedicated staff members of pantries like UCX Pantry,” Jess says.

Recently named the ACT Young Environmentalist of the Year, Jess was humble when asked about the recognition.

“It was very surprising to win the ACT Young Environmentalist Award. It totally, totally caught me off-guard. But I’m very humbled and inspired, and I’m very keen to get out there and keep doing what I’m doing,” she smiles. 

“It comes down to cost a lot of the time, and they have to choose between rent or a better meal choice.”

-Andrew Giumelli, campus Life Manager at UCX.

A key person within the program is 24-year-old Andrew Giumelli, the campus Life Manager at UCX and the man behind the Food Pantry.

Andrew says a broad range of students access the pantry’s services, and there’s no one group who are more food insecure than others – they all experience it.

“There’s quite a few factors involved with students experiencing food insecurity in a lot of different ways. It does come down to cost a lot of the time, and they have to choose between rent or a better meal choice, rather than something that is quick and easy to grab like two-minute noodles,” he says.

A student himself, he receives informal feedback from his peers on a regular basis about how they’ve been able to eat a real meal during the week because of the pantry, as well as lecturers across the campus sharing concerns for their students’ health.

“A solid meal has a huge impact on being able to perform at uni. Obviously, getting the nutrients we need is essential for our bodies to work, and our bodies are connected to our mental health,” Andrew says.

“We have anecdotally spoken to lecturers who say they’ve had students who they can tell haven’t had breakfast or haven’t eaten a meal and are undernourished, and there’s been the extreme case of a student passing out because they haven’t been able to take care of themselves.”

The UCX Food Pantry runs on a points system and all students are granted equal access to the service.  

“Every student at UC gets 10 points per week to spend at the pantry, so they can choose their essential pantry staple items, things like long-life milk, tin tomatoes, pasta sauce, pasta, rice, all of those sorts of things are in the point system,” Andrew explains.

“We also have the recovered food and fresh produce, which isn’t part of the point system – that’s just a take what you need system, which is the same for our toiletries. We have razors, feminine hygiene products, soap … a variety of toiletries and the students all just take what they need.”

The UCX Food Pantry appreciates the support from the Canberra community, and receives donations from local organisations across the ACT, including Oz Harvest, but are wanting to do more.  

“We get funding from the uni that supports us currently, but we want to make sure we continue to offer the program and grow it to really impact our students even more – offering new initiatives like breakfast, community gardens, and cooking classes – so we are really looking for community organisations and business partners to come on board and help us achieve those goals,” Andrew says.

To find out more about the UCX Food Pantry, head to facebook.com/ucxfoodpantry and to find out more about the Food Donation Network, visit crjo.nsw.gov.au/projects/food-donation-network

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