New 'pay what you can' cafe at Queen's University helps support students

Some Queen’s University students are feeling the impact of high food costs, and a report shows they are not sure where their next meal is going to come from.

A new pilot project on campus has been set up to help with that - with a ‘pay what you can’ model.

It’s called The PEACH Market, which stands for Providing Equal Access Changing Hunger Market. 

Customers can order what they would like on the day’s menu, and pay either $1, $3, or $5, or simply state what they can afford based on their budget that day. 

Tina Hu is the vice-president of operations with the Alma Mater Society. She says it’s been set up in partnership between the student government organization, and the school’s hospitality services.

It has to help student’s affected by rising food costs and inflation. 

"It’s super affordable and it targets a really unique group on campus," she explains. "Especially with students who don’t have full time jobs, or are just becoming independent from their families."

Volunteers run The PEACH Market three days a week. 

"Any food that hasn’t been taken from the dining rooms is 'rescued' and brought to PEACH - and that’s our inventory," she explains.

A recent survey done at Queen’s University shows 13 per cent of students who completed the survey reported going hungry because they did not have enough money for food. Twenty-four per cent of students reported that they sometimes or often worried whether their food would run out before they received money to buy more. 

Theresa Couto, who is with Queen’s Hospitality Services, says the rates shown were high.

"And they’re only rising with increasing food costs," she explains.

Couto says many students also reported that they didn’t feel comfortable using food banks. 

"The implications of food insecurity are quite substantial. From physical implications and mental health implications and, of course, it will impact academic performance," she explains. "So they don’t have to worry about how to access nutritious food."

The pilot project began in September, and Hu says more than 300 meals have been given out since then. 

The pilot project will run until the end of the school year.

"We wanted to remove the stigma that is addressing food insecurity," she explains. "We’re really happy and proud to have brought it together."