Audio Featurette

Post-secondary students at the University of Guelph-Humber and Humber College are struggling with the high cost of food. Food manufacturers are using shrinkflation, where product sizes decrease while prices stay the same or increase. This has affected students' ability to buy food on campus. Many students face financial barriers and can only work part-time minimum wage jobs. Some compromise on food by buying cheaper, unhealthy options. According to the Canadian Federation of Students, the price of food on campus is seen as unfair and unaffordable. To address this, some schools have implemented community fridges where students can access donated meals. This concept would benefit students by saving them money and providing a larger variety of food options. It can also bring the school community together and positively impact students. Post-secondary students across campus at the University of Guelph-Humber and Humber College struggle with the high cost of food in today's economy. Shrinkflation is a strategy used by food manufacturers where the sizes of food products decrease while prices stay the same or even increase. Tynesha Munsey, a third-year student at the University of Guelph-Humber, expresses just how much of an impact this has had on her this school year. I realized that this year I have only purchased food on campus maybe like once or twice because of such of the high prices that we have been experiencing. It's still like my first year on campus I would have in that cash every single day. Post-secondary students face many financial barriers including tuition, rent, grocery prices, and transportation and many of these students are only working part-time minimum wage jobs due to their studies. Some students must resort to making compromises on food such as buying unhealthier meals on campus like a bag of chips or a candy bar because it's a lot cheaper than most other meals at the cafeterias. Munsey tells me it has made it harder to buy snacks and food on campus. We'll pay almost ten to like fifteen dollars for like a small sandwich or croissant that just a few years ago would have cost the most five dollars which is insane to me. According to the Canadian Federation of Students, in Ontario 81% of students purchase food on campus ranging from one to two times a month to multiple times a day. 61% of those students say that the price of food compared to the portions being received are unfair and 63% of those students say that the cost of food on campus is unaffordable. To aid in the high cost of food some post-secondary schools in Ontario like the University of Guelph have implemented community fridges where students have access to nutritional meals donated to the school and can essentially take what they need. This concept is very helpful to the school community because as the cost of food continues to rise so does the demand for nutritional meals. I definitely do believe that the students here would benefit from that and it would save a lot of these students money. It would make access to the food and then the snacks easier. I believe that they would have a larger variety of snacks and foods to choose from and I believe that the community fridge would have all access to like every single time whereas the cash flows at a certain time. As shrink inflation and the high cost of food continues to have its effects on students at Humber this can encourage sharing bringing the school community together to positively impact many students. you