Financial aids in place for students suffering with food insecurity–No application required
Amid rising living costs, Langara's financial aid department offers $200 gift cards aiming for immediate relief for students
By KORALEE NICKARZ
To alleviate the economical strain on students, the Langara College financial aid department in collaboration with Langara Global, are providing emergency funds to students suffering from food insecurity, with no application required.
The program provides a $200 grocery gift card to any Langara student going through food insecurity. Students are eligible to receive one card per term, but some exceptions are made for students who are at a more vulnerable state, such as a single-parent student.
Anna Beck, associate registrar at financial aid and information services, said, “International students are the ones that need our support now more than ever, given some of the recent circumstances to their ability to come…and coming from their home country to Canada is a challenge.”
Lack of promotion
According to Beck, since the start of this year only 143 students have accessed the gift card. The Community Cupboard program, which was replaced by the grocery cards, saw 3400 takers in 2022. The grocery card program is entirely funded by an anonymous donor through the Langara College Foundation.
Langara student Luke Dixon expressed that he was unaware of the program and expressed concerns about its sufficiency. “I don’t think that’s enough for four months,” he said.
Beck acknowledged the limited promotion of the program as she said, “It’s not something we openly promote,” due to limited resources.
Helping hands
“The food gift card becomes something that we can give to the student in that moment, to give them some reprieve,” said Beck. Since students are not required to complete an application for the gift card, the processing time is almost nil.
With the Greater Vancouver Food Bank’s eligibility criteria now tighter than ever—requiring one year of residency—many international students have been sidelined from getting the assistance they need.
Emma Nelson, communications manager at the Greater Vancouver Food Bank says that Langara students make up very little of their client population. But post-secondary students made up 24 per cent of new GVFB registrants in the past year and they expect that number to increase.