We’re students at Purchase College, and we’re advocating for the recreation of the community kitchen. The kitchen had a decent amount of traffic, with some people using it weekly and even daily. People used the kitchen to make food that was comforting, food that was able to adhere to their specific dietary restrictions, and even food and baked goods for bake sales. But they gutted the place without notice, without providing a good alternative.

There is certainly a gap in food accessibility on campus, specifically for those with dietary restrictions. Everyone has heard stories of vegetarians being served meat without their knowledge (improper labeling of foods is incredibly common), students of varying religions being unable to eat due to improperly labeled pork, or students with celiac not feeling safe enough to eat at the dining halls after seeing improper handling of cross contamination. 

The highest available meal plan only covers 19 meals per week. Sure, most college students may not eat breakfast or eat at all sometimes, but why would the school actively encourage that? And with the new take-out policy in the dining hall limiting the amount of food students can bring back to their rooms, it’s inevitable that someone with a healthy 3 meals a day schedule will need to pay for at least 2 extra meals. 

The old community kitchen was located in a building open to all students, equipped with eight burners, and two ovens. The alternative they proposed is the Wayback community kitchen, a kitchen with 4 burners, no oven, and it requires you to already live in the building or know someone who is willing to let you in. The reason we were told the kitchen was taken out was to build an accessible bathroom, which is a welcome and needed change (maybe also fix the accessible doors and elevators while you’re at it). We are asking the school to please find it a new home, or even just equip the existing kitchens with an oven. Longterm, we believe that more residential buildings should add kitchens so that students are able to cook for themselves and eat freely. It will only benefit students to have more open food channels.

We also have a feedback form which will be submitted with this petition linked here:

bit.ly/farsidecomkit