Scotty Eats, a newly launched food insecurity program has started distributing free meals to students every Tuesday night from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. The program, despite having been launched only this quarter, averages 80 to 100 students per night, distributing dining hall food that would have otherwise been discarded.
The program is a result of a collaboration between Basic Needs, the University of California, Riverside (UCR) Dining, Green Campus Action Plan (GCAP), the Associated Students of UCR (ASCUR) Internal and ASUCR Sustainability. Located in the Bear’s Den, Scotty Eats seeks to alleviate students’ food insecurity by providing free meals to students created by the leftover food from Glasgow Restaurant. The program taking place at 10 p.m. is due to the dining hall closure at 9 p.m.
In that window of time, Scotty Eats volunteers drive over to Glasgow Restaurant to perform temperature checks on food as well as take note of any allergies in compliance with Environmental, Health, and Safety Guidelines (EHNS). Once the food is transported to the Bear’s Den the temperature is checked once again before it is served.
All Scotty Eats volunteers are required to have food handling certifications and are required to follow appropriate conduct such as making sure hairnets and gloves are used. ASUCR Vice President of Sustainability Ellen Nguyen explained that Scotty Eats usually has plant based options and tries its best to have at least one starch, vegetable and protein to put in each of the three compartments and take out boxes that students bring home with them.
Before students receive the food, they must fill out a form stating their enrollment status, year, how they heard about the program and if they qualify for food assistance. If students do qualify for food assistance, they are emailed resources relating to food insecurity programs and instructions on how to sign up for them.
Nguyen explained that the Scotty Eats project has been in the works since 2022 and that it was the work of many including Basic Needs Coordinator Vivian Gonzalez who modeled the proposal for Scotty Eats after UC Los Angeles’s Bruin Dine that inevitably ended up losing traction.
Nonetheless from 2022 to 2024, discussions were taking place to determine stakeholders and sources of funding. Further meetings were held with UCR Environmental Health and Safety (EHMS), Dining Services and administration to make sure the project was meeting all the requirements to be considered a viable food insecurity and sustainability program.
While the program plans to continue to be once a week on Tuesdays, Nguyen expressed interest in expanding in the future. Looking forward, she says that having Scotty Eats on multiple days of the week is not out of the question.
