ASWU Senator looks to address food accessibility with campus improvement project
Senator Jana Tana (’30) is striving to address food accessibility on campus as her Campus Improvement Project. This is one of the tasks carried out by the Associated Students of Willamette University (ASWU) senators throughout their time in office to cultivate sustainable change on campus.
Campus Improvement Projects are a chance for ASWU senators to address a campus-wide issue and use their position to enact change. ASWU Director of Communications Aggie Hunziker (’27) explained that senators must gather information on their topic and ensure that there is a need on campus. Once senators’ projects are approved, they move to the planning and execution phase.
ASWU Vice President Erica Stotts (’28) stated that her job is to guide senators to the administrators they need to talk to and do biweekly check-ins to ensure progression in their project. From there, projects historically have been community events.
Recently, ASWU has shifted away from these “one off events” and towards projects that can be sustainable around campus, Stotts said. Tana is hoping to adhere to this new sustainability initiative with her food accessibility project.
Tana described her interest in the project being fueled by curiosity about campus food accessibility needs, as Goudy Commons shortened some of its meal periods this semester. This project also comes a year after the Students Organizing for Access to Resources (SOAR) Center, which provided a food pantry for students, closed its physical location.
Although the project is still in its research phase, she aims to address students’ access to food on campus. Tana has been receiving input from students via a link on ASWU’s Instagram page. Within the questionnaire, Tana asks students to identify their level of access to food resources, if time constraints hold them back from eating certain meals and if they have any feedback on Willamette’s food accessibility. Since the form went live, Tana has begun to learn more about the needs of Willamette students in regards to this issue.
Upon starting her project, Tana stated she “was heavily researching hot food vending machines and assumed that people would want that more.” This came from the fact she observed the success of these vending machines at other universities like Puget Sound. After receiving feedback from the form, she realized that the need for hot food vending machines was not necessarily a top concern for students.
The biggest concern Tana observed was how students could access food later at night. She stated that people “can’t access meals due to practices or studying.” From this input, Tana decided to shift her Campus Improvement Project’s focus.
Now, Tana hopes to accomplish a system of grab and go food boxes that will be available to students outside of Goudy’s operating hours. If this were to happen, “we would need a vendor,” Tana said. Other logistics, like location, timing, cost and food items included within the grab and go boxes were still yet to be determined, as Tana is still working out the feasibility of this idea. She will work alongside ASWU senator Alexander Berry (’29) and the ASWU executive board to continue to work out the sustainability and completion of her project.
From what she has seen, Stotts stated that she’s impressed with Tana’s “ability to do a needs analysis… and is very receptive to… what we need.”
Disclaimer: Alexander Berry is also a staff writer for The Collegian.
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