An Alaska university has found a new way to combat its community’s growing hunger crisis.
The University of Alaska, Anchorage allows students with unpaid parking fines to cover the cost with peanut butter and jelly. That’s right: Instead of paying a hefty dollar fee, students need only bring in a few jars of peanut butter and jelly. Two 16-ounce jars are worth a $10 credit, three jars are worth about $35, and five jars are worth $60, officials said.
It is an annual tradition for the university, and all donations go directly into the school’s emergency food cache for students in need. This year’s food drive will last two weeks, with the second week focusing on collecting canned soups instead of peanut butter and jelly, according to KTUU.
As winter approaches, these kinds of food drives are necessary for Anchorage. The community has struggled with food insecurity for years, but it’s begun to affect children and young adults at an alarming rate. Nearly 100,000 Alaskans go hungry every year. (Keep in mind: Alaska’s total population is 737,438 people, according to 2018 U.S. census data).
Many of those in need are children. As of 2015, about 1 in 5 children in Anchorage reported being hungry at home. And about 40% of students in Alaska’s schools have said they don’t have enough to eat at home or in school, says Andrew Mergens, the Anchorage School District’s nutrition director.
UAA’s food drive is one way the community has decided to address this problem. The university has introduced other solutions, too. Students can donate unused meal card swipes to a cache, and the bottom floor of the Student Union offers free snacks and beverages daily, according to UAA staff.
Georgia DeKeyser works in UAA’s Student Health and Counseling Center and said it’s often hard for students to ask for help. But they do. In just one year, the school’s emergency food cache handed out 161 bags of food, each containing nine meals.
UAA’s innovative solution is just one example of what it looks like when a community works together to support its members. Creating camaraderie might seem complicated, but sometimes all it takes is something as simple as peanut butter and jelly.
