Food Access Hub: Addressing Food Insecurity and Growing Community
By Ella Tracy
Oct. 15 marked the 20th anniversary of the CSJ Community Gardens located on the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet campus next door to St. Kate’s. Staff and volunteers celebrated with a potluck featuring food from the Garden, caramel apples, fresh apple cider, flower murals, scrapbooking and a table displaying the Garden’s history.
Gardeners show off their pickings from the Community Gardens. Credit: Mollie Pierson
The Gardens are just one of several resources provided by the Food Access Hub (FAH). The FAH exists as a collaboration between the CSJ’s and St. Kate’s to address food insecurity on campus, ensuring that students, faculty, staff and alumni have access to nutritious food. In honor of the Garden’s anniversary, I spoke with two St. Kate’s students, Mollie Pierson ‘25 (Economics, Sociology) and Jasmine Koch ‘25 (Public Health), who work at the FAH to learn more about the resources they offer and the important role the FAH plays in the campus community.
What is the Food Access Hub?
The FAH exists to educate and support members of the St. Kate’s community who experience food insecurity. They provide food via the Community Gardens and the Food Shelf and collaborate with other departments to promote FAH resources. A few FAH staff are also part of the SCU president’s sustainability committee that led the charge for forming a campus-wide sustainability plan. Pierson explained that the goal of the sustainability plan is to “set goal posts for now and in the future” and learn from the CSJ community about the responsibilities the broader community has toward a sustainable campus. Learn more about the president’s sustainability plan here.
A student peruses the Food Shelf offerings. Credit: Jasmine Koch
What is food insecurity?
Food insecurity occurs when people do not have consistent access to nutritious and culturally appropriate food. “We are on campus to meet a basic need of food, but more importantly nutrition,” Pierson explained. “There’s a stereotype that college students should be surviving off ramen or free food from events, but that is food insecurity. It’s even worse if you can’t find culturally appropriate foods on campus. College students experience food insecurity at higher rates than the rest of the US population, so it’s very important to bring awareness to what food insecurity looks like.”
A significant barrier to the acquisition of food is increased prices. The resources at the FAH are all free; all you need to do is show up and show your St. Kate’s student ID card.
Pierson touched on the relief the Food Shelf provides to people’s finances. “It relieves a lot of stress in people’s lives to have something they can consistently access,” Pierson said. “I’ve heard a lot of stories of people saying ‘my loan money didn’t come in’ or ‘I thought I was going to get this grant but I didn’t’ or ‘my car broke down and now we don’t have money for food this week.’ Life just happens, and that’s why people use the Food Shelf.”
Pierson noted that over 80% of people who utilize the Food Shelf are repeat visitors, meaning that a large portion of Food Shelf visitors rely on the Food Shelf as a consistent source of food.
Where does the food come from?
The food grown in the Community Gardens is picked by gardeners for consumption and sometimes offered through the Food Shelf. The rest comes from outside sources. “We have a combination of food being purchased from food banks and being donated through other programs,” Koch said. “Our two main food banks are Second Harvest Heartland and The Food Group.” Both banks are local to Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The FAH is also ramping up their food rescue program. “30% of food made in the United States is wasted,” Pierson said, much of which is still perfectly edible. Rescuing food means redistributing these food items that would have otherwise been thrown out.
Through their partnership with Second Harvest Heartland, the FAH rescues day-old bread from a bakery called Breadsmith for Food Shelf visitors. They also rescue shelf-stable foods from the Marketplace on campus. An impressive 15-20% of the food at the Food Shelf is rescued food.
A tray of bread from Breadsmith. Credit: Jasmine Koch
What research or projects are ongoing at the FAH?
Pierson and Koch are employed through the Community Leaders program within the Office of Scholarly Engagement at St. Kate’s. Both have worked on impactful projects during their time at the FAH.
Koch spearheaded efforts to translate signs in the Food Shelf. Thanks to her work, “there are signs around the Food Shelf that have translations in Hmong, Somali and Spanish in addition to English to increase accessibility.”
Pierson conducts research using data collected at the Food Shelf and shares statistics with stakeholders or grant applications. Along with data from the Food Access Coalition, a cross-campus organization including St. Kate’s, Augsburg and Hamline, she was able to see “how the Food Shelf is a good intervention for food insecurity” at St. Kate’s. Pierson is also working on a film documentary investigating the community around the Garden that will serve as her senior honors project.
What outreach is the FAH focused on?
Koch is leading the charge on a major outreach project for the FAH: presentations with select St. Kate’s Reflective Woman courses. As part of the Community Engaged Learning component of TRW, students learn about the resource and food insecurity from FAH presenters, then spend a day volunteering at the Food Shelf.
Students working in the Community Gardens. Credit: Mollie Pierson
Pierson said that this type of outreach not only exposes students to an important resource, but also changes peoples’ perceptions of seeking out food assistance. “We try our best to destigmatize the resource. The best way to do that is to talk about it,” Pierson explained.
When are the Food Shelf and Community Gardens open?
The Community Gardens are now closed for the season, but will reopen in June of 2025. The Food Shelf is open on the 1 and 3 Wednesday of every month from 12pm-6pm. Contact them at foodshelf@stkate.edu or visit the website for additional information.
How can people give back to the FAH?
“We rely a lot on donations,” Pierson said. She noted that they “prefer monetary donations just because every dollar buys $4-5 worth of food at a food bank” due to the unique purchasing power of money at food banks. Pierson encouraged alumni especially to consider donations to support a resource that helped them as a student.
Volunteering is another way to support the FAH. “We have volunteers during our food shelf days and Tuesday morning on delivery days,” Pierson said. Koch emphasized the circular model of mutual benefit, where those who partake in a resource can give back. Visit their website for more information and ways to get involved.
