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Over the course of this campaign, several themes and patterns arose. One is the pattern of what I consumed on a daily basis. Every single day of the campaign I ate cereal for breakfast, most of the days I had some sort of derivative of pizza, and most of the days (though not as much as pizza) I had some sort of pasta (including KD). It made doing daily blogs difficult because I had nothing else to talk about other than the same meals everyday. However, such is the life for someone busy like I am and on a very restrictive budget such as I was during this campaign. One of the themes that arose during this campaign is the notion that healthy eating on a $7.50/day diet is not tangible. I alluded throughout the campaign that I was lacking in several areas in terms of daily nutrition; that came out in one of my blogs this week when I said that I was several servings short in 3 of the 4 food groups (especially veggies and fruits) on what I considered a pretty healthy day compared to my patterns lately. The last theme I alluded to was the notion that being an involved person on campus and trying to eat a healthy diet on a restrictive budget is simply not possible; when the cheapest meal on campus is pizza and that takes up nearly half of your budget for the cheapest kind of slice, you realize that it simply isnt possible. There are ways to try to save on food–but often, like I have mentioned, the free food is not that healthy or is even downright bad for you. So while you save money, you are often not helping out your body. Arguably, you may assert, one has more money now to use as a result of the free food–true, however you still consumed those calories of the unhealthy food (so you will not be eating the healthy food afterwards because you are satiated), and often your savings is not significant enough to afford a healthy option. It comes down to this: students living on a $7.50/day budget that is allocated by OSAP cannot afford to eat healthy…that is simply the bottom line. The time invested in trying to minimize your spending on food becomes prohibitive at a point where you are taking away from academic time and other important pursuits. Even then, with that invested time, it is difficult to make it within the $7.50/day threshold.
So despite keeping within my daily allotted budget throughout this campaign, I do not feel very good about it. I know that my body deserves better and I know that if I had eaten healthier throughout this time I would have been more productive in school, sports, extra-curriculars and even my social life. Students should not be expected to take on this unnecessary stress during 4 very important years of their development. I am not saying that tough times do not build character; adversity is important, but do not leave the student in a de facto situation that leaves them below the poverty line. That does not allow for students to pursue and reach their full potential during their university experience.
I would like to thank everyone for tuning into this blog and I hope you have had the opportunity to reflect on what is a very important issue for OSAP-receiving students. Should you want to know more about my experience throughout the campaign, before it, or even well beyond the end, do not hesitate to contact me. Intelligent dialogue and discourse about the real experiences of students is how we will be able to find a way to make this situation better. OUSA has proposed several solutions to these problems and we hope that people give them a real look to ensure that we can solve the problem–our educational institutions ar the key to our future prosperity!
P.S. if you really wanted to know, I had cereal/yogourt/banana for b-fast, a slice of pizza for lunch, and free food at a “volunteer appreciation” for dinner… ;)
