Overview
The Unified Support Centre (USC) is excited to announce that we have outgrown our original space on campus and will be moving into a new, bigger space in Winter 2024.
With this move comes the opportunity to serve more students through our Safe Walk program, Food Hamper program, and give us the space to work on new initiatives in support of undergraduate students mental health and wellbeing.
The Background
Although the move means an expansion of our services, it also speaks to the high demand of support students have been seeking over the last two years. Food hamper requests are up exponentially and we have been exploring several options to support this need.
One way we help students is through our undergraduate student food bank (Emergency Essentials Assistance Program) where we provide hampers of fresh food, canned goods, and health products to those who need. One of the challenges of this program is our own storage space – this is where the new space comes in. Our new larger location on campus will allow us to store more food and move more product effectively to serve as many students as possible.
We are in need of a crucial piece of equipment – an industrial-sized fridge and freezer to store products like eggs, milk, cheese, and frozen foods. Our current refrigerator is too small to meet the growing demands of the program. This not only compromises the freshness and safety of the food we distribute but also limits our capacity to store and provide a wide variety of perishable items.
The Rollout
We will use the funds collected to support our purchase of a new fridge/freezer for the new USC space.
The Impact
With a new, energy-efficient refrigerator, we can:
Ensure Food Safety: A new fridge will help us maintain the ideal temperature, ensuring that the food we distribute is safe and fresh for those who depend on us.
Increase Capacity: We’ll be able to store more perishable goods, such as fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and meats, offering a broader range of healthy options to our clients.
Reduce Costs: Modern, energy-efficient refrigerators will lower our energy bills, allowing us to allocate more resources toward our primary mission of hunger relief.
The total cost of the new refrigerator is estimated around $5000.00, and every dollar counts in helping us reach our goal. This piece of equipment is crucial in our everyday operations.