Ashton Arellano
October 23, 2024
Formerly known as the Snack Rack, Roary’s Market is to be the improved and promising new initiative to expand food security on campus. The current Snack Rack is in S1-12 on the first floor of the Winnet Building. In past years, the Snack Rack provided students with snacks to help them through the day, as well as “meal bags they could take home to their families.” That said, the meals were typically just a bag of chips and a milk that was sometimes spoiled.
This makes sense. For the last two years, their budget had been $2,000, all meant to account for over 8,000 students. But the sudden increase in Snack Rack budget from $2,000 to $38,292 this year has had nothing to show for it. The more I dug into this issue, the fewer answers I found, and the more questions I was left with. Emails exchanged between faculty and students familiar with the issue revealed that, in addition to the recent budget increase, the school is actively seeking more funds as well as food donations to support the initiative. We are now 8 weeks into the school year and still have not seen improvements or changes from the chips and dairy of past years.
This article had started as a simple piece on the revamped campus snack rack, it would only later evolve into something far more complex. My initial task was straightforward: gather information about the new policies to combat food insecurity. However, what should have taken a few minutes, and one conversation, quickly turned into a drawn-out search for answers all of which were embedded in layers of administrative tape. I, along with many other students, were jumping through hoops, navigating an endless maze of emails, committees, and excuses. This is a troubling thought especially with food insecurity being a real problem in Philadelphia, a problem that the school administration has been looking to take direct action against as of this year. Our search for answers began with Assistant Dean Richard Kopp, the editor of our paper M.P. Hassel had been in contact with him. It was through emails exchanged that we were given the impression that Roary’s Market would be under the Hospitality and Management Department. Where it would then be placed within the Sandra E. Klein Cube. Kopp had noted that Chef Richards and Lynsey Madison would be the ones to spearhead this operation. But when we went to go find out more, we would only be left chasing our own tails. The apparent plan set in place was not privy to those actually working the Klein Cube. For starters Chef Richards was no longer employed by the college. To which the program would instead likely fall under Chef Andy Marin, who still believed the program fell under the direction of Jenavia Weaver, the Coordinator of Student Life. We learned from Dean Nicole Rayfield that “Chef Marin has just returned from sabbatical… he would not be aware of this project but will be involved as needed.” Still, Chef Marin was blindsided by this plan. And turned out that the same market would stay in S1-12.
From here all we ever got from Weaver was “Please send your availability to me for Friday. I can try to assemble that team together and we can all meet.” To which a meeting would never arrive. We have been sidestepped countless times, but that would not stop us.
The location of our new and not-so-improved Snack Rack remains in S1-12, and as of right now, is still a work in progress. Belinda Pierce, Director of Single Stop and the Student Care Network had informed students that the Snack Rack future location in the southwest side of Winnett Building will be under renovation in the spring of 2025 until that fall. There will be an actual Mini-Market in place and students will get to check out their items at the checkout. The school will keep track of how many students and snacks will be accounted for tracking purposes. The J-number will be recorded with each swipe. The snacks will be free of charge, they will continue to be food donations from places.
If you’re hungry go and get your grub at S1-12, we will keep you in the loop with updates to come.
The Independent 
Leave a comment