Can Students Solve Food Insecurity? SLU Campus Kitchen Discusses

KAVYA HARISH Staff Writer

The denial continues despite “international and domestic court rulings, independent reports, and broad international consensus” says Cogo. Republika Srpska representatives continue to block attempts at instating a statewide genocide denial ban. In July 2021, Bosnia’s international High Representative, who supervises the implementation of the Dayton Agreement, instituted a state-wide law criminalizing genocide denial. Yet, Serbian politicians not only continue to deny the crimes committed in Srebrenica, but celebrate them in parades, holidays, and songs.

Each panelist called for SLU students and other community members to call out the denial and remember the war, its affected peoples, and its implications for Bosnia’s future.

McCarthy highlighted how human rights groups, like St. Louis Bosnians Inc. or OneWorld, advocate for policy changes.

There are “international human rights groups, vehicles for those groups to protest this continuing problem of genocide denial,” said McCarthy. “Laws don’t mean much unless implemented,” he points out.

Cogo emphasized the role SLU students play in combatting genocide denial.

“We live in an age where it is extremely easy to spread false narratives and you being vigilant with that and intaking information in a more responsible manner would be helpful for this and everything else,” said Cogo.

“I was starving until you guys came,” a Midtown 300 resident tearfully said to me during a Campus Kitchen delivery shift. “I was sitting in my apartment, my fridge empty, and it felt like there was a hole in my stomach.”

These are not the circumstances of only one person in St. Louis, but of almost 15% of the population in Missouri, according to the 2019 Missouri Hunger Atlas. Food insecurity, or lack of access to sufficient, nutritional food, has plagued St. Louis for years. It is said to be caused by many factors including unexpected illness of a family member, an accidents, or underemployment. However, disparities in food insecurity are also at the intersection of racial issues in this country. In fact, food insecurity might simply be a symptom of decades of systemic racism.

In St. Louis, Black Americans are more likely to go hungry than their white counterparts, a trend that transcends across generations, according to a report by the Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic at Washington University School of Law. Saint Louis University’s Atlas Program brings together members of the University to focus and educate on global challenges that confront the 21st century, with food insecurity at the forefront of those issues.

Students involved in an educational Atlas session on food insecurity spoke about why SLU students should care about and advocate for tackling food insecurity.

“Most of us are from privileged backgrounds. We go to a private school and have never gone hungry a day in our lives. But hunger and malnutrition have a ripple effect on society and development,” said Faith Whatley-Blaine, the student hosting the Atlas session., said.

At SLU, the effects of urban poverty are camouflaged for students within campus boundaries. However, walking a hundred feet away from campus will give any student a clear picture of the poverty impactingracking many St. Louis residents.

“There is a clear disinvestment in the north side of St. Louis. Poverty is obvious to anyone who goes there. There are barely any grocery stores, yet, around SLU there are at least three. How can St. Louis residents eat nutritionally if they cannot even find a grocery store near their homes?” another student in the session said. For SLU students, there are ways to work toward fixing food insecurity on campus. Campus Kitchen is a volunteer organization dedicated to fighting for food justice around SLU’s campus neighborhood. Melissa Apprill, program coordinator of Campus Kitchen, said this programCampus Kitchen aids in solving food insecurity through redistributing food.

“Campus Kitchen helps reduce food waste, recovering 65,000 pounds of food across campus and the surrounding St. Louis area. Reducing food waste has an effect on food insecurity on a systemic level. By repurposing food, we are giving people nutritious, fueling meals,” Apprill said.

Campus Kitchen’s goal is to put as little as possible into the landfill. If there is food that cannot feed large groups of St. Louis residents, then students are able to come in and keep it for themselves.