Students have been able to enjoy free meals at the St. James campus’ 341 King St. E location since September 2023.  

The communal lunch program is a pilot project launched by Jennifer Mitsche, professor at the centre for preparatory and liberal studies. 

An initiative that is run out of the Centre for Preparatory and Liberal Studies, the program provides meals for students on a first-come, first-served basis every Wednesday. 

“This is really a pilot project, but it’s based on research that I lead from 2020 to 2023 and that was based on an initiative that I launched while studying at York university and teaching at George Brown College.” Mitsche said. 

Mitsche’s research identified two recurring problems that college students deal with: food insecurity and social isolation. These problems, if not managed, can have a significant impact on every aspect of a student’s life. 

She shares that social isolation can weaken a community and therefore sharing a meal together can help rebuild these connections within a community.  

“We didn’t have these strong communities on campus, and these are places where students and faculty spend their days and it felt like there was an opportunity to just do something very simple,” she said. 

The goal of the program is to support students’ health and wellbeing, serving about 50 – 70 students every Wednesday. 

The food is prepared by groups of up to nine students from various programs at 200 King St. and are guided by Chef Suzanne De Freitas, manager of culinary skills; Maria Felisa Torres-Hives, administrative assistant lead in the Dean’s office; and Chef Nuha Hameed. 

“Students are taught the basics of food preparation, food safety, and food nutrition, learn to work collaboratively in a kitchen and learn a new recipe that they can try out at home,” Mitsche said.  

The program not only helps students build skills in preparing food, but it also challenges them to cook nutritious meals using ingredients easily available at home.  

Though currently only in its pilot phase, the program’s results could result in a longer-term implementation in the future. 

“Currently, we do not have direct funding for this initiative and most of the people involved are volunteering their time because they believe so much in the philosophy and purpose of this work! We started collecting ‘pay what you can’ donations in the fall to cover the cost of the food. Our Dean, Susan Toews, is working on accessing other sources of sponsorship to make this initiative sustainable,” Mitsche said. 

The ultimate objective for the initiative is to become standard programming in time. 

“We can create a program where there is affordable, healthy, sustainably produced food to a disproportionately food insecure population is ultimately the goal.” 

Students are invited to attend the Wednesday communal lunches to observe firsthand the effects it’s having on the GBC community as community support will be key to its success.