No lunch money? No problem

Cheap food is great. Free food? Even better. What originally started out as one student on a tight meal budget has led to a growing online initiative to set students up with free food on campus here at McMaster University.

It is unsurprising that one of the greatest challenges facing students on campus is finding affordable food. Considering the sheer cost of food expenses for students combined with the price tags associated with tuition, textbooks and living, operating on a tight budget can be a struggle.

To help alleviate these financial challenges, Frank Chen, a fourth-year Health Sciences student at McMaster decided to start Nolunchmoney, an online initiative that aims to heighten awareness of the ‘free food’ opportunities going on around campus.

Chen noticed that while purchasing food on campus was expensive, there were numerous clubs and events giving out free food on a regular basis. And as a typical broke student looking for sweet deal, he decided to check out all these events where free food was promised.

“I started doing that and started writing my own experiences, and then my roommates became interested in it too and used to accompany me. One day we were just wondering why we shouldn’t expand this to everybody, creating something for all students and adding value to society,” said Chen.

Operating both as a blog and a Facebook page for well over a year, Nolunchmoney is managed by five administrators, all of whom are students at McMaster. “[Using] Facebook really lucked out, my team is really solid … I also built the blog over the course of the year to lend credibility to the page,” Chen explained.

The current team of admins for the page found out about Chen’s project in many different ways. “I was in first year last year with one of the admins as a Welcome Week rep. I was really interested in getting at all these free food events, and saving money on the meal plan since food is expensive on campus,” explained Marcin Zegarmistrz, a second-year student who is also an admin.

The team makes regular posts on the Nolunchmoney page, as well as keeps a calendar on the webpage with upcoming events. The main task for the team is to research which events are giving away free food and to convey this information to students over social media.

“You sort of get experience with this, I have been doing this for four years,” said Chen. “There are certain indicators that go off when I see an event. You build a sense of awareness for the many avenues—Facebook, flyers, groups, and faculties that gives us a scoop on things.”

Having reached over 1,000 likes on the Facebook page, the initiative has even been receiving requests for event promotion. “As an organizer of an event, the worst thing that can happen is that nobody shows up. So you can have a few students who come just for the free food, but the turnout looks good and maybe you can get them interested,” noted Chen.

Tosin Tomiwa, also an admin of the page agrees that collaboration with clubs and organizations provides mutual benefit. “If no one comes to these events, they are just going to waste their food. But if there are people who come to eat the food, the club wins and the people win as well,” he said.

With respect to future undertakings, Nolunchmoney certainly aims to expand its outreach. “I would love to see it spread into an official club, or we can collaborate with catering services, so that every time they finish an event there is free leftover food,” said Chen, “And beyond free food, Nolunchmoney hopes to be about personal finance. Getting students more aware of this important topic.”