BUSU scraps grocery voucher program

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This article was published 23/12/2023 (846 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon University Students’ Union is back to the drawing board after scrapping its grocery voucher program due to a substantial increase in cost and demand.

Ashley Taron, executive director of BUSU, said the food voucher program, which provided students who signed up $15 grocery vouchers every two weeks, was canned after only a year.

“We very quickly found that we did not have the resources to meet the (need). We were on a steep upward trajectory for use of the program. And at one point we were giving out between 200 and 250 gift cards,” Taron said.

Taron said BUSU started with once-a-week grocery vouchers and then had to move to every other week before finally stopping.

“We were looking at around $100,000 a year, just to meet the needs of these students to get them $15 every other week, which, unfortunately, was prior to grocery prices increasing the way they have. And $15 is really not going to get you anything too much anymore,” Taron said.

“We’re still reassessing to see, but there’s still a drastic need for it. Because while the minimum wage has increased, so has the cost of living. It was just not feasible for us to keep going with that. And people are generally very happy to donate food. When you’re asking for monetary donations, it’s a little bit trickier. And since we’re not a registered charity, we can’t give tax receipts,” Taron said.

The gift vouchers started in September of 2022, replacing a food bank program that was not meeting students’ different dietary needs or eating restrictions due to religion. Taron said BUSU had started with giving out milk and eggs, but most of the time it was a miss with students.

“That was a big leading thing that led into this grocery voucher program — that we don’t know what any student’s dietary restrictions look like,” Taron said. “It was just the funds are just a little harder to come by than we had originally hoped. And not having charity status definitely stops us from getting some grants and some other options there.”

Taron said BUSU has directed students who need help to Samaritan House, where they would receive a full food hamper after filling out an application form and showing their student cards. Students who need some extra help can also sign up for the new program at Bailey’s — a public coffee shop and restaurant at BU. Bailey’s, which is run by BUSU, will start in January to offer biweekly meals to 10 students per month who apply for the service. This new program has been started with “seed money” from Bailey’s and BUSU.

Taron said the program will be very reliant on donations. Bailey’s will make it easy for patrons to donate. Just $7.50 added to a Bailey’s bill is enough to buy one meal for a student. She said BUSU will also accept monetary donations at the BUSU office.

“The student will get a meal every two weeks is what we’re working on for now. It would be my dream to get them to one meal a week. But we’re just being cautious going in and we want to start with one meal every two weeks, just so that we can kind of maintain our little reserve and help as many as we can. And the dream is to get one meal a week kind of thing, as we grow the program,” Taron said.

BUSU will likely meet to discuss a new food program and the advantages of becoming a registered charity once classes are over in the spring.

“It is on our radar and it’s all about finding the resources. But it is something that we are looking into. (We’re) being very cautiously optimistic and we’re not sure what it looks like. But part of going back to the drawing board on our food security program is what is going to be the best way we can take care of this moving forward,” Taron said.

» khenderson@brandonsun.com