The University of California, Santa Cruz is converting its Cowell Coffee Shop into a “multi-service basic needs cafe” to aid students facing food insecurity.
The new cafe is being created through a partnership with dining services, the school’s center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems and UCSC’s Cowell College. Due to open at the start of the fall semester, the lower part of the cafe will continue to be a study space for students (with free coffee and tea) and will also host nutrition and financial wellness programming.
Upstairs, the kitchen will be used as a food pantry as well as a demonstration kitchen.
School officials say that the cafe is one of the ways all 10 University of California campuses are trying to combat food and housing insecurity in their communities. In 2016, 44% of UC undergraduates and 26% of UC graduate students said they had experienced food insecurity, according to UCSC.
Read the full story via UCSC’s website.