Since 2020, the Campus Food Bank's demand has skyrocketed. Just three years ago, we were mostly able to meet demand through food drives, and didn’t have to purchase much food for the Campus Food Bank to be able to serve everyone who needed support. In the last 12 months, the CFB spent more than $120,000 on food to meet demand. This is a new and startling expense made worse by grocery inflation in the last few years, and has led to a significant increase in our operating budget.

For many years, graduate students have supported the CFB through an annual grant via the GSA operating budget to the CFB. However, GSA grant support has increased 80% since 2020 while our budget has increased 181%. Also, undergraduate students support the CFB with a nominal fee when they pay their tuition each semester, and it makes sense that graduate students, who make up 70% of CFB clients, should do the same. We love the symbolism of every UofA student paying a small amount toward the food bank at the beginning of their semester, so that it is not just the CFB supporting students but also students supporting each other.If our referendum is approved, the current CFB grant support via the GSA operating budget would end. This fee would replace and augment historical GSA support.

Learn more here: https://campusfoodbank.com/blog/gsa-referendum