Many students struggle with affordability in Vancouver, especially when it comes to food. With the semester starting for the 2024/2025 academic year, the non-profit organization Campus Nutrition is determined to help ease students’ food struggles with a new online resource.
Campus Nutrition recently released an interactive tool that lists all the places to eat on the UBC Vancouver campus. The tool has filters to help students find the cheapest spots.
“The map includes everything from cafes, restaurants, bubble tea shops, dining halls, and students can explore based on price, cuisine hours of operations, and also search for places that accept residents meal plan dollars and UBC card,” said Sepehr Kamal, CEO of Campus Nutrition.
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Designed with students in mind, Kamal shared that two of the map’s key features are the price and residence meal plan filters.
“The filter options are also really designed for how students think,” said Kamal. “The price filter as well as the residence meal plan filter are the most important ones to help students find affordable places to eat.”
In addition to the filters, the map includes a feature for students to leave reviews, which Kamal said was essential in helping students figure out which spots give you the most bang for your buck.
“As part of the reviews students can leave on the food outlets, they can also be tagged in the reviews for places that are affordable or have big portions. That’s something we’ve also realized is honestly even more effective,” he said.
“You can look at the menus for the places, but what we realize is that really doesn’t convey the true sense of what’s affordable because you can have small portions.”
Earlier this year, Campus Nutrition released a food guide on where to find the best deals on UBC’s campus in its efforts to target food insecurity.
The new interactive food resource continues the organization’s efforts to help with student affordability. It was timed with the return to school to help both existing and incoming students navigate UBC’s food scene.
“Our goal is to make sure as many students as possible are aware of and can benefit from the resource,” said Kamal.
“It provides students with easy access to the affordable food options and helps them make informed decisions about how to spend their money.”