While new graduate student funding provides temporary relief for food insecurity, student leaders are advocating for long-term solutions.
The Society on Graduate and Professional Students (SGPS) successfully secured $15 thousand in funding to its growing food insecurity programming, ed by the University’s Sustainability Initiatives and Activation Fund. This fund was established through the Cold Beverage Agreement, under which the University signed a five-year contract with
Coca-Cola Canada Bottling Limited as its cold beverage supplier, with an option to extend for an additional five years.
Under this agreement, effective since 2023, Coca-Cola provides annual funding to the University’s efforts in advancing the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including “quality education,” “reducing inequalities,” “sustainable cities and communities,” and “responsible consumption and production” through the Sustainability Initiatives and Activation Fund.
In an interview with The Journal, Zaid Kasim, vice-president (graduate), emphasized the urgency of food insecurity and called for long-term solutions beyond emergency food programs.
“Food insecurity programming is a band-aid,” Kasim said. “It’s something that the government but also that Queen’s needs to step up and handle because from a student perspective, all the food insecurity programming feels like students are taking on the burden of feeding students, and that’s such a backwards way of doing things. We’re happy to do it, but it’s not our job.”
The SGPS’s food insecurity programming is made up of various campus partnerships that provide meals, grocery , and additional resources to graduate and professional students on campus.
According to Kasim, the program includes multiple initiatives, such as the Mason Jar Meal and Fresh Food Box program, which was established last year and has since expanded from 40 to 50 meals per month with 500 meals given out to date. Other initiatives include the Good Times Diner, which distributed over 500 take-home meals for graduate and professional students in 2024-25, and a $1,000 contribution to the Ontario Public Interest Research Group to fund the their annual community garden program.
“When I say our food insecurity program, that’s what it is—it’s a collection of all these various groups that we’ve sponsored to target their food insecurity program towards graduate and professional students,” Kasim said.
“Our philosophy is that we don’t really care about credit, we don’t really care about programming being ours. All we care about is that our students get fed. That’s all we [SGPS] care about,” Kasim said.
Despite the secured funding, concerns remain over its long-term sustainability.
“The reality of the situation is that with inflation, the potential for maintaining our current programming was only going to realistically be two more years before we have to scale back,” Kasim said. “With this money, we can be strategic, and we can ensure that all of our programming students currently rely on won’t be changed for next year.”
Kasim criticized Queen’s for failing to acknowledge the issue of food insecurity while promoting the UN SDGs, particularly eradicating poverty and ensuring food security. SDGs are a set of global objectives the UN adopted as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
READ MORE: Principal Deane speaks to UN Sustainable Development Goals
“Queen’s prides itself on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, things like no poverty, food for all, but I think we need to begin to advocate more seriously on some of these issues,” Kasim said. “The AMS has been a great partner throughout all this, but I think [Queen’s] s need to step up, and faculty needs to step up. Everyone knows this is a problem, but as soon as we talk about it, we it that it’s a problem.”
Looking ahead, the SGPS is calling for increased institutional and governmental to tackle food insecurity in the long-term.
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