Ella Leonelli of the USU Christensen Office of Social Action and Sustainability works as a student sustainability engagement lead and tells us about the Farmers Market at Utah State University.
"So today, we're at the USU farmers market. And this happens every Wednesday throughout all of September, and then, depending on how October's weather looks, either the first two Wednesdays of October or more, completely weather dependent. And it's just a whole bunch of local vendors who we invite to come on campus and sell their merchandise to students.
We actually run a program at this event called Double Your Bucks. This is a grant funded program here at USU. A student will give me $1 and in exchange, I give them $2 of these tokens that they can spend on, specifically food items at the USU farmers market," Leonelli said.
Nathan Davis of the student organic farm booth spoke on how they use the Double Your Bucks program to provide students with fresh produce.
"Students can redeem those tokens at our booth and get some fresh vegetables free of cost, subsidized by the university. And then the second thing we do is, after every pickup all the leftovers we have we take to the snack pantry, which is in the Taggart Student Center building. But the snack pantry, essentially, if you've got a student ID, you can go there and pick up weekly food free of cost. And I think that's a great option for students who maybe are struggling to pay for food," said Davis.
