ASWSU Senator Nife Shola-Dare is creating a food insecurity fee to ensure WSU students will not be worried about where their next meal will come from. 

Shola-Dare said she wanted to create a specific fee because food pantries on campus operate on donations and volunteer work alone. 

“The food pantries here are all donation-based, so if we don’t get donations, basically the supplies will run low,” she said. 

Her plan is still in the early stages of development, but Shola-Dare said she wants to eventually have each student pay $5 that would be paid through their WSU account to go toward the program.

Shola-Dare said she has decided to name this the “Cougs Against Hunger Food Pantry Fee.”

The $5 would be optional for students, but Shola-Dare is worried they would opt-out of it. She said she is going to propose the idea on the ASWSU election ballot, and students can then vote on the fee being optional or not. 

Ideas for this project began last spring, when Shola-Dare authored a resolution that called for the inclusion of resources on syllabi. However, it did not go as she had hoped. 

“Everyone seemed to be against including these resources and I don’t know why,” she said. 

Shola-Dare said she was also involved in the Basic Needs Assessment Task Force and was in the process of organizing a donation-based food drive before the pandemic hit. 

“It’s always been an area that she’s been really passionate about. She’s come to a couple meetings with our weekly group, and we’ve worked together on some initiatives,” said Luci Loera-Herrera, WSU Office for Access & Opportunity executive director.