More Than a Meal: How Students Led UCalgary’s Food Security Movement

Apr 11, 2025

When Shaziah Jinnah Morsette first joined the University of Calgary Students’ Union, she knew students were struggling — but she didn’t realize just how many were going hungry.

“I’ve lived in that gray area — not food insecure enough to use the food bank, but struggling to afford food,” says Jinnah Morsette, BA’24 (Communications and Media Studies), BA’24 (Multidisciplinary). “Many students feel the same. We skip meals, trade lunch for parking and quietly compromise. Food becomes the first thing to go when life gets hard — it’s invisible.

That quiet struggle sparked something bigger.

What began as a modest food cupboard tucked away on campus eventually evolved into a full-campus network of affordable groceries, subsidized meals and nutrition-focused programming. The Campus Food Hub is now the heart of UCalgary’s food security response — and one of the university’s most visible student-driven success stories.

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Video: Why Invest in Canada’s Seed Future? | On The Brink: Episode 3

Darcy Unger just invested millions to build a brand-new seed plant on his farm in Stonewall, Manitoba so when it’s time for his sons to take over, they have the tools they need to succeed.

Right now, 95% of the genetics they’ll be growing come from Canadian plant breeders.

That number matters.

When fusarium hit Western Canada in the late 90s, it was Canadian breeders who responded, because they understood Canadian conditions. That ability to react quickly to what’s happening on Canadian farms is exactly what’s at risk when breeding programs lose funding.

For farmers like Darcy, who have made generational investments based on the assumption that better genetics will keep coming, the stakes are direct and personal.

We’re on the brink of decisions that will shape our agricultural future for not only our generation, but also the ones to come.

What direction will we choose?

On The Brink is a year-long video series traveling across Canada to meet the researchers, breeders, farmers, seed companies, and policymakers shaping the future of Canadian plant breeding. Each week, a new story. Each story, a piece of the bigger picture.

Episode 3 is above. Follow Seed World Canada to catch every episode, and tell us: Do you think the next generation will have the tools they need to success when they takeover? How is the future going to look?