STORY BY CAITLIN LEIKER
VIDEO BY RAEGAN NEUFELD
AUDIO BY TIM SCHOEPFLIN
The Tiger Food Exchange (TFE), managed by FHSU’s Food and Hunger Initiatives, has permanently relocated to Room 138 of the Memorial Union.
The TFE operates like a local pantry, offering free food items for faculty, staff, and students. It will remain open during the Union’s hours.
Nonperishable food has always been available, but now the TFE regularly supplies grocery staples like milk, bread, eggs, and more.
They’ve also started supplying personal care items like shampoo, conditioner, body wash, deodorant, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and feminine hygiene products.
The organization was previously stationed in Forsyth Library, but was set to move due to eventual renovations. Since the TFE settled in the Union at the start of spring classes, they’re wanting to maintain such expanded offerings.
“We have been vigorously restocking,” Peter Tramel said. “Things have been going fast this semester.”
Tramel is an assistant professor of Philosophy. He manages the Food and Hunger Initiatives with Robert Duffy, the university’s Drug and Alcohol Counselor with Health and Wellness Services.
The centralized location of the Union has enabled the TFE to partner with more campus organizations.
Along with the TFE’s student employees, volunteers through Health and Wellness Services have helped with the shopping and organization of the new space. One such volunteer, Jessica Albin, is spearheading a new project for the TFE.
Every week, student employees go shopping for fresh produce to give away to students, known as “Fresh Food Fridays.” Since moving to the Union, Albin has been organizing “Meal Kit Mondays,” putting together bags of ingredients with a recipe for patrons to cook a full meal with.
The Student Government Association has also been a main partner of the TFE in both online promotional efforts and connections to other campus organizations.
“There’s more communication going on, we’re more in touch with the students, and the senators in SGA have a better feeling for what their fellow students are facing as far as the economic times we’re in,” Duffy said.
According to Tramel, generosity from the FHSU and Hays communities keeps the TFE afloat.
“Donations of food, donations of money to our Foundation account…and we get funding from the Student Government for the pay of student workers, for garden equipment, seeds, and things like that,” Tramel said.
Through Duffy’s explanation of TFE operations, there’s been an air of “all hands on deck” since the start of the semester.
“We’re all pitching in together,” Duffy said. “With the shift over here, and with what’s going on with the cost of living right now, there’s been a pretty big impact…so there’s going to be an increase in demand for what we’re offering.”
With the school year inching closer to the summer months, the Food and Hunger Initiatives team hopes to get their garden up and running again – another source of TFE produce.
We’re building greenhouses at the moment,” Tramel said. “When the weather gets nice, we’ll be seeking volunteers again for help, and we hope to be able to provide food from the garden year-round, eventually.”
Duffy said that it’s incredibly important to keep the TFE up and running, especially with inflation.
“We had done a survey–before the pandemic, even,” Duffy said. “About a third of our students said that they were food insecure at some point during the semester, whether they didn’t know where their next meal was coming from, or if they’d have enough money to budget for food. If you look at the student population, that’s quite a few people we’re talking about.”
Another main part of the TFE mission is decreasing the stigma around using it. Tramel expressed that they want everyone to feel comfortable utilizing the resource, and not feel ashamed or embarrassed.
The staff and student employees regularly encourage patrons to take what they need, even if it’s just a granola bar or a bag of chips while studying in the Union.
They only ask that patrons anonymously tally the sign-in sheet in two columns: (1) how many people they’re grabbing items for, and (2) how many items they take. This helps the organization keep weekly numbers on how they help the university.
More information on the Tiger Food Exchange and other Food and Hunger happenings can be found on the organization’s Instagram and Facebook pages.