Student-led initiatives, including a new app, target food insecurity at Boise State

Tucked away in the back of the Dean of Students office at Boise State University is a student-created pantry stocked with canned foods, snacks and meals available to any hungry student.

At the same time, those who dine in the Student Union Building are being given the option to donate two meals from their selected meal plans to a student in need as part of BSU’s student-proposed involvement with Swipe Out Hunger.

Taking the effort further, the student-designed Bronco Beam app is just a month away from its official launch, on Jan. 16. (It already is being used in a trial phase.) One of the app’s goals is to curb waste from catered events at the school by making leftover food available to students.

With data showing high rates of food insecurity among college students — a 2018 study found that 36% of those in college are experiencing hunger and lack enough food — these developments are all part of student-led efforts at Boise State to limit the problem on campus and provide people with options for meals.

National trend reflected at Boise State

Also in 2018, the Government Accountability Office reported that insufficient food and housing undermines postsecondary education experiences. Specifically, the Real College survey showed that 40% of college students communicated problems accessing nutritious food.

Boise State was the only four-year institution in Idaho to participate in the survey, but its results are not unique.

“About 800 students responded and we were right around 36% of our students reporting food insecurity. This aligns with national trends,” said Lauren Oe, associate dean of students at BSU. “We did get some information back with the understanding that there are some higher-risk student groups, including students of marginalized populations, students with disabilities and higher-class standing students, and students who live off campus.”

According to Oe, the lack of food security affects retention rates and grades, among other things.

“Your ability to think and retain information when you are hungry is pretty low. You have to have those basic needs met before you can focus on other areas,” Oe said. “And we hear that from students, too.”

In the first five weeks of the 2018 academic year, the food pantry at the university had 60 visitors recorded. In 2019, that number increased to 220. For Oe, this shows that there is not only a need, but that students are helping each other become aware of the resource.

However, Oe and Boise State are trying to encourage multiple approaches to the problem of hunger, and the Bronco Beam app provides exactly that.

An app for change, and to feed the hungry

The work that started among a team of seven students in the Games, Interactive Media and Mobile Development program has come down to three seniors: Tyler Chapman, Olivia Thomas and Issiac Torrero. Together, the three have worked for two years to design an app that will notify staff and students that there is free food available nearby — in particular, the result of leftovers from catered events.

“We looked at students and we thought if we really want students to adopt this in a classroom setting, what does every college student want? Food,” Chapman said. “This was at about the same time that a lot of studies were coming out about food security in Boise and around the nation, and how prevalent it was.”

Chapman explained that due to liability risks, many campus food companies — Boise State’s is Aramark, which has contracts with hundreds of schools nationwide — do not donate leftover food and are simply left to discard it. The BSU students’ goal, then, is to bring the people to the food in a safe and timely manner.

Aramark is working with the students and the Bronco Beam app through the Dining Services department, making the leftover food available. The Idaho Statesman contacted Aramark to inquire about its food waste policies, trends and involvement with Bronco Beam, but the company did not respond after requesting that a list of questions be emailed.

“I have seen a lot of food that they have left over get taken away. The resident dining has minimal waste, but it’s usually from catering,” said Rich Weigle, director of Dining Services at BSU. “Here’s what happens in a catered event: A group has been booked for 300 people up in the Student Union, there’s bad weather, 250 show. Well, they have prepared for 300 people. So they have 50 meals left.”

The goal of the app is to pair food-insecure students with those meals. And Weigle explained that such a situation is the perfect setup for the app.

A so-called soft launch for the app has seen student participation increase quickly. There were about 10 respondents to leftovers after the first notification, but that ticked up to 30 the next time around, the app developers said.

“We have 900 active users with the app downloaded and (we) are technically still in pre-release until January 16,” Thomas said.

Anthony Ellertson, director of the GIMM program at Boise State, explained that Boise State recognized it had a problem with food security and is working to find solutions.

“It will evolve into such an incredible program on this campus, and the best thing about it is the Bronco Beam was developed on this campus by the GIMM program,” Weigle said. “And to be able to say we developed our own, that’s pretty cool.”