#BearsOfBaylor — “Let’s give it away for free. And, here we are!”

[Earlier this month, a team from across Baylor and Waco organized a Free Farmers Market as part of an effort to make sure BU students — particularly the food insecure — have accessible, nutritious food. Learn more here.]

“One of the national issues being talked about in higher ed is student hunger on college campuses. My faculty mentor and I started doing research at Baylor on student hunger. … Out of that came this event. We said, let’s make it a farmer’s market. Let’s give it away for free. And, here we are!

“We want our students to have not just food in their systems, but food that is of substance — fruits and vegetables — and to know that this is something that Baylor cares about and is continuing to work toward for our students. It’s fun to hear students say, ‘Oh my gosh! I can’t believe they’re doing this! I can’t believe it’s free. This is exciting!’ Students seem to be overwhelmed, both at the amount of food and the fact that we’re just giving it away, saying, ‘Please, take more.’ I think the response has been both appreciation and, hopefully, awareness to student hunger.

“It’s our first time, so it would be great if we could repeat the event in the future. We’ve talked about also for students that really struggle with hunger, maybe trying to do something small-scale — maybe once a week, where we just have a small truck or something where we can provide food. We hope that this is the launching point for other campus resources for our students that are really struggling to eat meals every single day. … We have to be aware that students on our campus don’t always look like the norm that we expect Baylor students to look like, and that means thinking of creative ways to serve them.”

[Every Baylor Bear has a story; #BearsOfBaylor brings those stories to you, one by one. These stories, these people… This is our Baylor.]