The Office of Residential & Dining Services (RDS) is offering a new program called Feed the Flock that allows students to receive meal swipes from a community pool of donated meal swipes. This program aims to address the issue of food insecurity among Stevens students and allows those with excess meal swipes to provide them to those in need. The Stute spoke to Trina Ballantyne, Dean of RDS, for more information.
A community meal plan program has been in the works for some time, and with the help of Stevens Dining Services, Stevens IT, the Office of Student Support, the Student Government Association (SGA), Residential Hall Association (RHA), and students from the Office of Student Culture and Belonging, the program is currently being piloted with hopes ironing out any issues for the start of the Fall 2024 semester. A form is currently live, and it allows students to donate up to 10% of their plan’s meal swipes to the community swipe bank. Students with a Tera Bite meal plan, a group that includes most first years, can donate up to 23 meal swipes to their peers. Currently, snack swipes are not a part of this program.
Any student can request meals with minimal restrictions. Students can request one to three meal swipes, with a maximum of three requests per semester. The transfer of meal swipes is not immediate: “It may take up to two business days to be processed and see meals added to your Stevens Campus Dining Grub Hub Meal Plan account,” said Ballantyne. If students have a meal plan, they “must have no more than three Meal Swipes and/or $20 dining dollars in their account to request meals.” The form is intended to be discreet and indiscriminately provide meals to those who request it.
Stevens Dining Services has preemptively donated meals to kick off the community bank, so there are currently available meals for students to request. They monitor the donation bank to see the volume of donations and requests and ensure they are able to meet student needs. “Once we have established the program and made sure all are informed and we are steadily receiving donations, we will explore other opportunities to assist our students and help those in need,” says Ballantyne.
Stevens has also joined the Swipe Out Hunger campus network, which connects campuses with program support, grants, discounted products, and resources for implementing anti-hunger policy. The Feed the Flock program is intended to support students who are food insecure, but because swipes are limited, it cannot replace a meal plan. “Additional help may be available to students who are in need through the Office of Student Support at stevenssupport@stevens.edu,” says Ballantyne.
