As graduate students, food insecurity is a real concern, especially with the rising cost of living and our limited budgets. With the added stresses of academic life, prioritizing healthy eating becomes a challenge, and many of us end up compromising our nutrition. Programs like the Peer Health Educators Mason Jar Meal and Fresh Food Box are here for us, providing fun, accessible and nutritious meals designed for students.
How does it work?
Each month Peer Health Educator unit provide at least 1 Mason Jar Meal and Fresh Food Box which are free for graduate and professional students because of a donation from SGPS.
How to sign up?
1. Check the Student Wellness Calendar for upcoming dates. AND follow @queensustudentwellness as you will be the first to know if you’re following
2. Reserve Your Spot a week before each event by clicking on the date. For example, if the next Mason Jar Meal pick-up is on November 14, sign up on November 7.
3. Include any dietary or accessibility needs when you sign up
After you sign up, you’ll receive a confirmation email with pick-up details, including the recipe.
Upcoming Mason Jar Meals and Fresh Food Box Dates:
- Fall: November 28 (sign up November 21)
- Winter: January 30 (sign up January 23)
- March 6 (sign up February 27)
- April 3 (sign up March 27)
- Fall: November 14 (sign up November 7)
- December 12 (sign up December 5)
- Winter: January 16 (sign up January 9)
- February 13 (sign up February 6)
- March 20 (sign up March 13)
On Pick-Up Day:
Head to the Health Promotion Hub (Mitchell Hall, Room 120) between 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm on the designated date to pick up your box or mason jar meal. Take it home for a convenient, nutritious meal—or turn it into a fun cooking activity with friends! If people are not available, they can email peerwell@queensu.ca
My favourite recipes so far include:
Sustainability with Food Packaging
Peer Health Educators encourages sustainable habits by offering options for returning your mason jar for reuse and offering creative ideas for at-home use. Personally, I fill it with dry produce to keep the moisture out and I love remaking my favourite mason jar meals and keeping them handy for rainy days!
Here’s my conversation with Peer Health Educators, where I got an inside look into the Mason Jar Meal and Fresh Food Box programs:
Can you tell us about the Mason Jar Meal and Fresh Food Box programs? How did these initiatives get started?
Health Promotion has been running a variety of food programs for a long time through the Peer Health Educator program which started approximately in 1991. Whether it was cooking classes or nutrition workshops, programming continues to evolve with the changing needs of Queen’s students.
The Fresh Food Box initiative specifically began in the summer of 2019 when 2 summer student staff piloted the program. It began as a response to the increasing levels of food insecurity in the Queen’s community. After a successful first program, the program was continued by the Peer Health Educator (PHE) Healthy Eating team which was a group of 5 volunteers. The mason jar meal program started soon after to provide quicker, cheaper, and more shelf-stable options for students on the go.
Who are the people behind the project? Is this a student-led initiate?
The Fresh Food Boxes and Mason Jar Meals are student led programs under the Peer Health Educator (PHE) program. They are run by volunteers under the PHE healthy eating team and two Student Wellness Food Programming Assistants, who are work-study students.
How is the program funded to keep costs so affordable for students?
We receive funding from various sources such as donations from the SGPS, campus safety grants from student affairs, and funds from the Queen’s Health Promotion budget. These funding sources help subsidies the costs of our food programs. We source supplies from local suppliers like Quattrochi’s Specialty Foods and Food Basics. We also use food budgeting strategies such as bulk ordering food and packaging, using in-season produce, and plant-based protein, which is less expensive and nutritious. Additionally, we try to reuse sanitized packaging and choose sustainable packaging to keep costs lower.
As someone who loves to cook, I’m always excited to try the new recipes that come with each Mason Jar Meal and Fresh Food Box. Where do these recipes come from, and who develops them?
The recipes are chosen by our PHE’s on the Healthy Eating team. The PHEs with support from professional staff at Health Promotion choose recipes, package and distribute the meals. We choose recipes from food blogs online or the QUIC international cookbook
Are past recipes available, and what have been some of the most popular options so far?
Students can access past recipes from our Mason Jar Meals and Fresh Food Boxes on our blog: BeWell@QueensU (These recipes can be found under the “Food Programs” tag.
Some of the favorite recipes are Vegan Stir Fry for fresh food boxes, and Spicy Black Bean Soup for mason jar meals.
How many students benefit from this, particularly how many graduate students.
We have typically 1 Mason Jar Meal and 1 Fresh Food Box every month, each with a variety of openings depending on sponsors. We will always offer 30 per program, regardless of who is partnering/sponsoring.
Both the Fresh food boxes and the Mason Jar Meals are free for graduate students because the SGPS sponsors the boxes & jars. We have also collaborated with Four Directions Indigenous Student Centre, Yellow House, Graduate Computing Society, and other departments where they have sponsored and been able to provide for free for their students.
For graduate students, we typically give out 50 Mason Jar Meals or Fresh Food boxes per month to graduate students. This program is very popular and tends to fill up quite quickly!
A big thank you to the Peer Health Educator Unit for taking action in supporting students’ well-being! You’re making healthy eating not only affordable but fun, too.