Kwantlen Polytechnic University
EN-3: Student Life

Sustainable Agriculture Student Association (SASA) is a student club under the Kwantlen Student Association that serves to provide students in the Sustainable Agriculture program with an outlet through which they can participate more meaningfully in the program during their stay. One of their main goals is fostering a community around the program through social events, skills training, funding trips to conferences, food forests, or to learn different farming practices. The SASA runs a community fridge at the Richmond campus. They stock it with produce from the KPU Garden City Lands (Richmond) Farm or what was left over from their weekly Farmers Market. Students are able to come by and grab what they need. SASA also provides the Kwantlen Student Association with free produce to give out at the Surrey Campus. Students could sign up for 2 free bags of produce over the season. As a new program, the trial was kept small by offering 15 bags of produce per week to whoever signed up. This program was popular, with many students signing up in September and October during the fall term. Website: https://www.kpu.ca/sasa Kwantlen Geographers is a student club within the Kwantlen Student Association whose purpose is to promote geographical and environmental thinking within and outside of campus. They want to provide a safe space for like-minded individuals that have an interest in geography.

In 2022 and in previous years, KPU's Tsawwassen First Nation Farm School provided a CSA program for students, faculty, and staff. This program was an 18-week subscription starting from June and ending in October. The CSA portions came in small, medium, or large boxes. Community members could sign up online to join the program and students received a 50% discount on the entire subscription. As this program is currently on hold for the 2023 year, the Kwantlen Student Association is partnering with local farmers to provide a 50% discount on a 15 or 10 week food box delivery program for students. The produce was provided to us by Vida Farm. At the regular price small boxes are $25/week, with our discount students received these at a rate of $12.50/week. Because it’s a subscription it was $187.50/15 weeks or $125/10 weeks. At regular price regular boxes are $35/week, with our discount students received these at a rate of $17.50/week or $262.50/15 weeks or $175/10 weeks. Students were able to pick up their boxes weekly on campus in Surrey/Richmond. This allowed students to get a variety of fairly priced, fresh organic produce conveniently on campus. https://kusa.ca/csa-produce-box-promo-code/ KPU's Westermann Community Garden located on Surrey Campus was named after the Westermann Family who were agriculturalists, gardeners, and supporters of education in Surrey and who previously owned and farmed the land in which the now Westermann Campus Garden is located. Coordinated by the Kwantlen Student Association, the 26-plot raised pallet garden bed system is available for free to all students, faculty, and staff. The community gardens were created to provide an opportunity for students, staff, and faculty to grow their own food and experience the health benefits of gardening, especially related to stress-reduction and mental health. Gardeners are able to access their plots from dawn to dusk from April to October. https://www.communitygardenbuilders.com/garden-kwantlen-campus-garden KPU's Tsawwassen First Nation Farm and the Garden City Lands Farm ("KPU Farm") in Richmond are also both used for teaching and learning in programs related to sustainable agriculture at KPU. The Farm at Garden City Lands also hosts public educational workshops and events.

Grassroots Cafe is one of the main dining services at the Surrey Campus, which is owned and operated by students. Grassroots is "run for students, by students, and strives to provide healthy, local, organic, fair trade, and environmentally friendly products which are purchased ethically". Grassroots Cafe works to achieve sustainability through local food procurement, a prominently vegetarian menu, waste diversion and reduction, and more. https://www.kpu.ca/grass-roots

The Office of Sustainability (Oos) within the Campus and Community Planning Department (CCP) along with the Kwantlen Student Association (KSA) led a "Ride to Thrive" event during the annual "Thrive Month" hosted by the Health Promotion team at KPU in October, 2023. Thrive Month is a series of events, workshops, and activities that focus on supporting positive health and wellbeing for students, staff, and faculty. The health promotion team has typically advocated for 6 pillars of wellness at KPU including: Emotional, Spiritual, Financial, Physical, Mental, and Social. It was that this month-long event could be a great opportunity to raise awareness around a seventh pillar, "environmental wellness", especially amongst the student body. Ride to Thrive focused on the environmental wellness benefits of sustainable transportation. This day celebrated the many sustainable ways the KPU community can travel to and from campus that benefit ourselves, our communities, and the planet. TransLink (Metro Vancouver's transportation network, serving residents and visitors with public transit, major roads, bridges and Trip Planning) and Hub Cycling (regional cycling advocacy non-profit) joined CCP and the KSA as community partners. Hub Cycling promoted their “Go By Bike Week”. The KPU Surrey campus was promoted as a “Celebration Station” stop in Hub Cycling’s own promotional materials for their "Go by Bike Week", a region-wide public event. TransLink promoted the new R6 rapid bus line. For "Ride to Thrive", the CCP team engaged the community with a transportation mapping board, where students and staff could map their route to campus and learn about sustainable alternatives to single occupancy vehicles. CCP also asked about memorable commuting experiences and preferential commuting options to and from campus. There was vegetarian/vegan catering for this event led by the sustainable student cafe called Grassroots. Food was kept as "finger food" to limit the amount of waste produced. In Partnership with the KSA, the CCP team also hosted a ‘cheer your peer-pong’ game which was primarily targeted to get students engaged in the event. It is a "play-on" beer pong (using water) with a sustainability twist . This game required participants to answer KPU-relevant sustainability trivia questions with the goal of filling one’s opponents water reservoir by getting the ball into their (water filled) cups fastest! They only could take a turn when they answer the trivia question correctly. KSA also had a table at the event where they promoted the various transportation-related services they have on campus such as the bike lockers, the Multi-Pass, shuttle bus, etc. CCP's Office of Sustainability had a prize draw for those who came by their posters. This prize draw was for a "sustainability starter pack".

In the Fall semester (2023), English 3304: Canadian Drama participated in the Climate Change Theatre Action festival, a worldwide festival that commisions short plays about the climate crisis for interested groups to perform. The students of English 3304 performed their creative interpretation of All Good Things Must Begin by Octavia Butler to an audience at KPU, followed by a courageous discussion exploring the play's meanings and metaphors. 

Active KSA is a student department within the Kwantlen Student Association that hosts multiple off-campus events that are free or low-cost to KPU students. Although some events occur indoors such as bowling or axe-throwing, most occur outdoors such as kayaking or hiking events. Active KSA wants students to get off campus when they can and most importantly enable students to "have a break and move their bodies". On their website, Active KSA states: "We love hiking and spending time in the Lower Mainland's beautiful nature, and because we love it, we are serious about protecting it. The Lower Mainland has a great public transit system, and we take full advantage of it whenever possible to reduce our carbon footprint. If an off-campus event destination is not reasonably accessible through public transit, we'll make sure to have a shuttle bus available for students." Students are able to use their U-Pass (discounted transit pass) when taking public transit in the Lower Mainland. When Active KSA hosts outdoor trips, they emphasize "Leave No Trace" principles by communicating to students to "bring back what you take with you".

KPU's Sustainable Development Goal Mapping Team (2022-2023) hired two student researchers to support a team of Faculty and Administrative staff in a research project focused on advancing the UNSDGs through the Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICAN) ImpAct Career Launcher program, and specifically for the SDG Research and Engagement Internships program. These student researchers provided capacity for KPU to map its pedagogical and administrative ecosystems towards illustrating how it supports the SDGs, as well as highlighting areas of strength that might be offered as best practice examples for other post-secondary institutions. KPU is a member of CICAN. Fall 2022 to Spring 2023 was the first time KPU engaged in the SDG Mapping Project. This work will continue for years to come with many potential student hiring opportunities, especially through the CICAN grant.

The Kwantlen Student Association also hires students and non-students of which two roles, the Multipass Coordinator and the Sustainability Coordinator, are sustainability-related roles. 

Food-Access Program: The Kwantlen Student Association runs a student food hamper to offer a supply of emergency food relief for current KPU students. The program is run through an anonymous on campus pickup program at Surrey, Richmond, Langley, and Cloverdale. All food is non-perishable and a vegetarian hamper is available. Students are eligible for one food hamper every 2 weeks. Students can apply for a hamper through an online webform. https://kusa.ca/ksa-food-bank/ The Kwantlen Student Association also has a Local Groceries Delivery Program which is aimed at increasing access to local, healthy, and sustainable food options for students. The Kwantlen Student Association has partnered with SPUD, a sustainability-focused grocery delivery service and B-Corp. The program helps students save money on groceries while gaining information on sustainable food options available to them. The KSA offers $25 gift cards that students can buy for $5 each month, meaning they are able to get $20 off groceries each month through SPUD's delivery service. 

Information about the KPU Farm's "certified organic" certification: https://www.kpu.ca/agriculture/organic