“UCLA’s philosophy is that we don’t want students to rely on this,” Sumekh says. Most students in need can receive one meal voucher a week. The school converts these into meal vouchers for students in need.
“We think it’s more sustainable if they design something for themselves.”Īt UCLA, for example, students donate between 8,000 and 16,000 meal swipes a quarter. “Each school really prides itself on the dining program,” says Sumekh. The way Swipe Out Hunger works with each school is a little different to account for their existing program. So then it becomes a question of well, ‘how much can you give? Do you at least have $5,000 left over every year? Can we have students do all the information collection? What is the actual logistic that’s stopping you?’” “Our next question is, ‘What logistically makes it not possible?’ They say finances, or our points roll over at the end of each week or that we just don’t have this in our capacity. “Every university says this is logistically not possible for us,” says Sumekh, the founder and executive director of Swipe Out Hunger. Getting UCLA on board with an official program to donate meal plan meals wasn’t easy, Sumekh admits, and in some ways she has the same conversation with each new school she works with at Swipe Out Hunger. Seven years later, Sumekh’s organization, Swipe Out Hunger, works with 22 schools across the country to give meals to those in need.
But Sumekh knew she was on to something, namely that her unused meals could help the hungry. For various reasons, including liability concerns, the school wasn’t happy with this. During her second year at UCLA, Rachel Sumekh and a group of friends began to give meals from their meal plans to needy people on the street.
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