Meet Julia Stein, AmeriCorps member at Baldwin Wallace (BW) University. A recent graduate with a degree in Public Health and Biology, Julia is thrilled to return to BW as a Student Resource Center Coordinator. Grateful for the support she received as a student, she’s eager to mentor and guide current students through their college journey.
Read Julia’s article below about how the Student Resource Center is tackling student food insecurity through initiatives like Campus Plate, a program that reduces food waste while providing free, ready-to-eat meals across campus.
Campus Plate at Baldwin University
Students at Baldwin Wallace (BW) noticed an alarming number of people on campus who were struggling with food insecurity or hunger related problems. These students took action to create a program called Campus Plate that is designed to address both hunger and food waste by packaging food from dining halls across the campus and distributing it through a proprietary app. Campus Plate has already led to a decrease in food waste, with reports indicating a reduction of up to 10 percent.
Students are able to download the Campus Plate app, designed by a team of BW computer science students and professors, and get notified when any certain refrigerator has been refilled, what food is available, any allergen information, and its date of expiration. Students with or without meal plans, commuters, faculty, and staff are all welcome to partake in this program and pick up a packaged meal of prepared food from our dining halls. The Campus Plate team, who consists of a Student Director and food preparation staff, coordinate meal packaging and delivery while focusing on areas with high student traction.
In seven different locations across campus, students can find a refrigerator with a Campus Plate logo on the door. The refrigerators are strategically located in diverse areas across campus to reach different populations of the BW community. Many food stops are placed in accessible buildings for vulnerable populations, where food insecurity is present at a higher rate. BW has Campus Plate refrigerators in the Center for Inclusion and the Veterans Center so that BW members of different cultures and backgrounds have access to a fridge full of ready-to-eat meals. Another fridge is placed in the Commuter Lounge to service a population of students that often do not have a meal plan and can become overlooked. The BW Rec Center and Library are home to two more fridges that can service athletes and students that may have busy schedules overlapping with dining periods.
Photo: Julia Stein, AmeriCorps member at Baldwin Wallace University showcasing their Campus Plate program.
Baldwin Wallace aims to expand Campus Plate beyond our campus, providing a model for other Universities facing similar challenges. In partnership with the Brain Center, the Student Resource Center has created program guides to assist other Universities in developing a Campus Plate program for their students in efforts to launch a nationwide fight against food insecurity on college campuses.
As Campus Plate continues to grow, Baldwin Wallace demonstrates its commitment to ensuring that no member of the BW community goes hungry while on campus.