The UC first floor was full of heads: lettuce heads, student’s heads, heads of cabbage and heads with smiling faces. A line from the front door to the elevators had formed, with a palpable excitement filling the air. KUSF was DJ-ing fun pop and EDM music that only electrified the crowd and built excitement. USF Market Day took place on Thursday Oct. 2, a program that’s a part of the ASUSF Senate’s Green Initiative. The event showcased free produce, button making and a smoothie that students could make themselves with a bike-powered blender. Other student organizations such as Latine Undergrad Network of Activists (LUNA), the Nursing Student Association, HIVE Minders and the USF Community Garden filled tables, selling delicious homemade brownies, cookies and various baked goods to raise funds for their groups and events.
Senate decided to partner with student organizations rather than other vendors as USF already had programs that would be able to support the event, according to Marci Nuñez, Director of SLE.
Emiko Uohara, junior chemistry major and President of ASUSF Senate said, “ Within Senate we have an advocacy committee, which is in charge of allocating our $20,000 GIFT, [Green Initiative Fund for Tomorrow] and this fund is used for student led sustainability initiatives. The advocacy committee decided to allocate some funds to Market Day to give free produce to our students, our faculty, our staff, basically our USF community.”
Each student group was there to promote their programs for different reasons, from cultural representation to food accessibility. Metzli Lemus, senior critical diversity studies major said, “SLE approached us because last year we had success with a fruta picada fundraiser and people felt really represented in their culture.” LUNA was the only cultural organization at Market Day, selling homemade chamoy fruit cups to fundraise for the events they hold to promote different Latine cultures on campus.
One of the most important aspects of Market Day is to make fresh produce accessible for students, and the USF Community Garden provided that. Melinda Stone, professor of environmental studies and Director of USF’s agricultural program, spoke of the struggles of getting food out to students on campus. “The university owns a farm North of here. I live right next door to that farm and every Monday I pick up the produce that they couldn’t sell at the farmers market, and that is a reality of our food system, that there is always more than what can be sold and so that’s part of our program here is, like, dipping into that stream that isn’t waste yet but could become waste,” Stone said.
However, there are challenges in the distribution process that make it difficult for students to access this excess produce. “We’ve been trying to get the word out, on Mondays, like ‘Hey come to the garden, we actually have excess food and produce’ and so people come for that. And because the graduate students have the new housing, I’ve been trying to make connections with those people there, it’s all very bureaucratic,” Stone said.
Accessible food seems to be on the minds of students at USF. Bee Laushine, senior biology major, said “We just stumbled upon it. We didn’t know what was happening, saw the line, saw some vegetables and were like what? But we loved it!”
Students were intrigued by the event’s fresh food and variety of snacks and seemed interested in more events that offer food accessibility on campus. Many of the students milling about were chatting about the quality of the food and were happy to see so many organizations present. Ryan Villicana, senior design major, said “The only reason I didn’t get produce today was because I’m on campus all day and didn’t want it sitting in class. But if it was happening later or something, I totally would’ve gotten groceries here.”
While providing fresh produce was the main menu item of the day, building community was another important aspect of Market Day. Cielo Garcia, sophomore business major and member of LUNA, said, “It’s really important to have our culture represented on campus, I think the students have really responded to that.”
Stone spoke to the importance of the garden, saying, “I see the garden as one of the spaces on campus where students have the most autonomy in a space that I have seen. I’ve been hearing more and more that there is more policing of people’s ideas [on campus] and I think that we’re trying to create a space where everyone feels comfortable.” Market Day provided students with not just accessible food, but community and culture allowing them to feel connected to campus life.
