STEPHANIE COOKSON
Some UP students consider the 2018 SRC’s promise to have R10 meals sold from food trucks on campus a failure, or a tactic for winning the 2017 election. However, the project is still active and has been progressing under the 2019 and 2020 SRCs, although work still needs to be done, some students still have hope for the food truck initiative.
The University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of Witwatersrand have published studies in the last two years, concluding that over 50% of their students are vulnerable to food insecurity or have suffered academically due to hunger. “In 2018/19 we conducted a scientific study to determine the extent to which we have food insecurity among students. It was evident […] that some students can only afford one meal per day, others two and so on,” said Professor Themba Mosia, the Vice-Principal of Student Affairs, Residence Affairs and Accommodation at UP.
The 2018 SRC’s ‘food trucks’ initiative was aimed at addressing this issue at UP. Under the presidency of Kwena Moloto, the SRC “managed to have council vote on the fact that they wouldn’t be increasing food prices” at the end of 2017, according to Moloto. “That was our first real jab […] at trying to tackle the issue of food insecurity,” he explained. The following year, the SRC pushed for the food truck initiative, which hoped to sell R10 meals on campus. Moloto explained that the meals would include “essentially a student’s daily calorie needs and vitamin needs […] in a single meal”.
“…although work still needs to be done, some students still have hope for the food truck initiative.”
Students voiced concerns when the initiative appeared to have halted by the end of the 2018 SRC’s term, however, the project is still underway, under the 2020 SRC. “One of the issues with the whole student government model is that SRC has a year to implement various projects, and because of bureaucracy within the institution, it generally takes longer than one year to deal with structural issues,” said Moloto, on the difficulty of completing such a project in his term. Although no food trucks materialised in 2018, the groundwork was laid by the SRC in the form of funds being made available for 2019’s SRC. “Structurally it takes quite a long time to push through programmes so unfortunately my SRC took the first step […] but in the following year it didn’t have any power to continue that fight and so we were really relying on the 2019 SRC to then continue the fight,” said Moloto.
One of the structural issues Moloto’s SRC encountered was the meal card system for students in residences. With money credited to these cards from the university, using them at food-trucks would mean “the money that [the university is] putting in is leaving this university ecosystem,” through the food-truck suppliers, explained Moloto.
“We worked closely with the 2018 SRC to conceptualise the food trucks project that would provide affordable meals to students. Notwithstanding the resource constraints, the food drives gathered an impressive momentum in 2018 and continued in 2019 through the SRC and many university operational departments and faculties,” said Prof. Mosia. After failing to yield positive results from a fundraising program to purchase trucks, funding was attained through TuksRes. Two trucks were purchased with these funds, and are currently operational, “relieving at [least] some of the residences where dining halls have been renovated, or where there are inconveniences to students [receiving] their meals,” said Prof. Mosia. These trucks are also operational at some of the campus events in order to generate income, according to Prof. Mosia.
“One of the issues with the whole student government model is that SRC has a year to implement various projects…“
The food trucks form part of the university’s SNAP Program (Student Nutrition and Progress), which the SRC works to bolster and help the university achieve the “ultimate goal of Zero Hunger at UP,” says Prof. Mosia. Since 2019, the SRC has built upon the foundations laid by the 2018 SRC. “[Moloto] basically got the concept through, and then when I took over we were looking at what would the logistical arrangements look like,” said David Kabwa, the 2019 and 2020 SRC President. Questions around how to provide food that is not only accessible and affordable but also healthy has been at the forefront of these logistical arrangements. “There have been suggestions to, for example, get things such as porridge, soups, […] foods that would be high energy so that students can concentrate but also […] that would be filling and healthy,” he explained.
Another major logistical concern for the current SRC is the legal components of the project, according to Kabwa, such as ownership and liability. “First you’d have to confirm logistics, and then […] it would be the actual output and doing all of that I don’t think is something that would come in the space of this year,” Kabwa explained, adding that “the only thing I can assure is that it will not materialise during my term.”
It has been confirmed that steel shipping containers will be used, but, according to Kabwa, there are lingering questions such as “how do we ensure that students, as well as their integrity and their self-esteem, are protected in such an endeavour?”. In 2018, the initiative hoped to be available for all students, and that “it shouldn’t only be meals for needy students but meals that all students would see as a viable option,” said Moloto. The current SRC has made central the issue of “how we would ensure that we protect students to feel comfortable enough to come forward and express any kind of need that they have without fear of judgement,” said Kabwa.
Looking forward with regard to the role of the SRC in addressing food insecurity among students, both Moloto and Kabwa emphasise the need for projects that continue in the SRC despite the annual change in power during elections. Moloto said that SRCs should adhere to the approach many student councils in the United States follow, where “they think more long-term, they start a project and provide the [plans] needed for the following year’s SRC to continue whatever long term project they had,” as opposed to only including the space of one year in the SRC’s plan of action.
Moloto also suggested working towards UP growing its own food as an example of such a long term idea.
“how do we ensure that students, as well as their integrity and their self-esteem, are protected in such an endeavour?“
“It is carried over from one SRC to the next,” said Kabwa, who explained that it was due to the 2018 SRC’s briefings to the 2019 SRC that the project could continue. “I recognise that in two terms I could bring it to fruition, but what I am grateful for is there has been, indeed, progress made, and each SRC will have to make progress,” he added. When asked what the SRCs and university management need to improve on, to alleviate issues like food insecurity, Kabwa said that a willing SRC and a willing management are important for success, which he believes that “we have at the University of Pretoria […] it is not an ‘us versus them’ situation, we’re all one community trying to look out for one another,” he said.
Prof. Mosia explained that in light of findings from the university’s 2018 and 2019 studies, the university will be launching a healthy eating campaign after consulting with nutrition experts as part of UP’s attempt to confront food insecurity. This “remains a concern, hence the institution-wide food drives to achieve zero hunger,” he said.
“If you don’t have food in your stomach, you are not going to succeed in a highly stressful [and] highly mentally demanding space,” stated Moloto. He added that, with regard to future approaches to food insecurity among students, what needs to be considered is “how do we now ensure that students have equal opportunity to succeed inside the higher education space?”.
Illustration: Sanele Zulu
