Verilu Infante 
UTRGV – In partnership with the Baptist Student Ministries, the Office of Professional Education and Workforce Development has started a food security initiative in which UTRGV students, faculty, and staff will be able to purchase bags of produce on a “pay what you can” basis.
“Our initiative now connects that operation to locally grown, locally sourced, fresh produce so that students can begin to understand that it’s easy enough to build the lifestyle that incorporates these concepts into their lives as well,” said Assistant Vice President of the Office of Professional Education and Workforce Development Jayshree Bhat.
A program specialist for the Office of Sustainability states that after a year of research, he and his team found that at least 44.2% of the student population at UTRGV is food insecure which he defines as a lack of access to sufficient and nutritious food, along with not having the knowledge to cook the food and the inability to store and retrieve it.
“So we presented some of these findings, and connected with Suzanne who’s part of the EAC, we connected with Global Blends and Jayshree. So the goal of this project is to create a sustainable food system that is not just sustainable economically, but socially for students who may have struggles while studying and they need food in order to live a normal and less stressed life,” said Forrest Sparks.
The produce being sold is not only coming from local farms in the RGV but also coming from a UTRGV farm, the Hub of Prosperity. Farmer’s Market Coordinator Suzanne El-Haj tells us the Environmental Awareness Club initially proposed the idea of this farm project in December to incorporate local food at the university through the UTRGV Farmers Market.
“And then it just became bigger and bigger and now it’s this whole huge sustainable food initiative across the campus and it includes the BSM and everything like that. So it’s really great to see how it’s grown and everything,” said El-Haj.
The overall “pay what you can” model was incorporated from BSM Global Blends which was recently expanded this year. BSM Campus Missionary Intern and UTRGV Graduate Gabriela Izaguirre encourages students to take advantage of this initiative especially during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“If you’re hungry and can’t find anything healthy please try to utilize what we are offering to you guys because we care, we’re there. We care about you. Stay safe, stay healthy,” said Izaguirre.
The bags of fresh produce, valued at 10 to 20 dollars, are limited and will be sold once again tomorrow Friday, April 24th, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the BSM Global Blends Parking Lot across from the UREC in Edinburg and the Research and Community Garden behind the Casa Bella Office in Brownsville.
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