Legislative Affairs Committee votes to pursue initiative for food stamp-friendly campus
By Madeline Heim | Apr. 5, 2016The Associated Students of Madison Legislative Affairs Committee voted unanimously during its meeting Monday to begin a campaign that would make UW-Madison a food stamp-friendly campus. Originally proposed by UW-Madison fifth-year student Brooke Evans, the initiative would allow students to use food stamps at university dining halls and other eating areas on campus. Evans explained there is currently a bill in the Wisconsin legislature that calls for all institutes of higher education in the state to be food stamp-accessible, but said a proposal from ASM would be beneficial even if the bill does not pass. According to Evans, there is a growing population of students who use food stamps at UW-Madison, and the initiative would work to ensure that using food stamps would not be “an ‘otherized’ form of adversity.” If a student who uses food stamps is studying with friends and needs a dinner break, Evans said, it could be an “awkward” issue for that student to leave campus to be able to purchase a meal with food stamps. Evans also said UW-Madison should become accessible and adaptable to this student demographic because it would allow these students to eat in proximity to their peers, and the university has a responsibility to expose other students to socioeconomic diversity. “That’s our job, and I don’t think we’ve been doing it sufficiently well,” Evans said. Evans added that hardware and technology used to pay with food stamps comes free from the state, and if UW-Madison moved forward with this initiative, the university would be among the first five institutions within the country to do so. Legislative Affairs Committee Chair Carmen Gosey said although details of the initiative have not yet been decided, Monday’s vote determined that the committee would begin to pursue options.
