Verilu Infante 
UTRGV – The Office of Professional Education and Workforce Development is currently seeking a Food Preparation Research Assistant and a Healthy Food Promotion Research Assistant for a food security initiative involving several organizations.
This UTRGV office has been partnering up with the Baptist Student Ministries (better known as BSM), the Office for Sustainability and the Environmental Awareness Club in this initiative where the UTRGV community is able to purchase bags of produce on a “pay what you can” basis.
“We had 80 bags of produce in Edinburg, another 40 in Brownsville campus. They all got taken away within an hour after we started the operation which was very exciting for us to see,” said Jayshree Bhat, assistant vice president of the Office of Professional Education and Workforce Development.
“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, program specialist for Office of Sustainability.
Farmers Market Coordinator Suzanne El-Haj tells us the Environmental Awareness Club initially proposed the idea of a farm project in December. Now produce from the UTRGV Farm, Hub of Prosperity, is part of the produce being sold.
“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. 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 Gabriela Izaguirre, Baptist Student Ministries Campus Missionary Intern.
You can apply for the positions mentioned earlier using the Handshake application.
For more information on the initiative, visit the project’s website: https://www.utrgv.edu/pewd/workforce/food-security-initiative/
Officials say the initiative will continue until the spring growing season ends and will start up again for the summer season.
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