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Shining a spotlight on the heroes of the UFS food environment

07 January 2025 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Anja Aucamp

Food Garden — Students transport fresh vegetables from the university's sustainable vegetable tunnels for distribution to their peers. These vegetables play a role in promoting healthy eating habits and ensuring students have access to healthy meals, making a difference in their overall well-being and academic success.

“I’m writing this email to express my gratitude for what you and your office do. I don’t think you can fully understand how grateful I am for the food parcels. I’m able to go to bed with food in my stomach, all because of you and your team, and for that, I am so thankful. Before I found out about your office, I was stressed about where my next meal would come from. Now, I perform incredibly well in my studies. I honestly pray and hope that the office continues to receive the support it needs to continue being of assistance to those in need.”

This letter is one of many received by the UFS Food Environment Office, highlighting the important role the university plays in supporting students struggling with food insecurity.

Healthy food choices

Five years ago, the university established the institutional Food Environment Committee (FETC) to provide guidance and recommendations to the university administration on matters relating to the food environment of the university. The aim of the FETC is to promote healthy and sustainable food choices across all three UFS campuses.

The committee is also responsible for assessing the food needs of vulnerable groups to ensure inclusive and accessible programmes, overseeing strategy implementation, and advocating participation across the campus. Additionally, they ensure that university policies do not detract from the policies and activities of the Food Environment Strategy in order to promote a culture of health and wellness across the UFS. The committee also engages in continuous planning and budgeting to keep the strategy relevant and effective.

Some of their key strategic objectives include strengthening sustainability through more collaborative food projects and partnerships. They also aim to improve food security by increasing affordable, nutritious meal options. These also talk to the number of students supported through food bursaries, and the quantity of food items distributed through food banks. Other goals focus on ensuring dignity and inclusivity, and activating residences, student associations, and faculty organisations in the food environment programme.

Dr WP Wahl, Director of Student Life in the Division of Student Affairs, explains that the committee includes stakeholders from academic, support services, and student groups. Its purpose is to oversee different priority projects within the institution that speak to addressing hunger and malnutrition among students. Key members include Student Affairs, the Student Representative Council, food service providers, Kovsie Act, and faculty representatives, such as the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics in the Faculty of Health Sciences and the Department of Sustainable Food Systems and Development in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences. These departments play a vital role in empowering and educating students, sharing information through videos, podcasts, and recipes on Facebook, the Food Environment webpage, and the Student Newsletter, as well as the Eat&Succeed page on Blackboard.

The Department of Nutrition and Dietetics is also closely involved in research, ensuring that decisions are based on scientific data. For instance, they compiled the 2021 and 2022 UFS Food Environment Task Committee Report, revealing that only 27% of UFS students are food secure, with 74% experiencing various degrees of food insecurity. In 2022, 39% of students reported going without food for a day because they could not afford it, and for 13%, this was almost a daily occurrence.

This research also examined, among others, eating patterns, food purchasing behaviours, and preparation habits that guide decisions to improve the university’s food environment and inform messaging to students.

Also playing a key role in executing the goals of the committee is the Department of Sustainable Food Systems and Development and Kovsie Act with the vegetable tunnels that were created on the Bloemfontein Campus and now on the South Campus for a sustainable flow of fresh produce that is channelled towards the food bank.

A supportive environment

The goal of promoting collaboration and mutually beneficial partnerships is to make a difference in the food environment at the university. Annelize Visagie, who is heading the Food Environment Office, highlights the university’s partnerships with major sponsors such as Gift for the Givers and Tiger Brands, who assist with food parcels. The No Student Hungry Programme (NSH) also has donors supporting its bursary initiative.

Since 2011, the university has made great strides in combating food insecurity through the NSH, which has supported the graduation of 875 students. Visagie finds it particularly rewarding to witness these graduates celebrate their achievements alongside their families, who express gratitude for the assistance provided. Such moments affirm the positive impact of their efforts in creating a supportive environment for students in need.

News Archive

UFS awards honorary doctorates during its centenary week

2004-10-07

The University of the Free State (UFS) will award 12 honorary doctorates on Thursday 14 October 2004 to a diverse group of outstanding South Africans and international experts.

This will be the last in a group of 18 honorary doctorates that the UFS will be awarding in its centenary year.

The awards comprise of a number of well-known language experts and writers, experts in higher education, first-time awards in community service and development studies, as well as music.

“This reflects quality and also diversity, a spectrum of convictions as well as the recognition of persons who played a major role in changing society in the last couple of decades, “ says Prof Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.

The awards can be grouped in the following categories:

Language and literature:

Mr Karel Schoeman (D Litt (hc)) – well-known Afrikaans author and former student of the UFS. Some of the awards he has received include the Hertzog prize for prose (1970, 1986 and 1995), the CNA prize (1972 and 1994), the Old Mutual prize (1985 and 1991), the SABC prize for best television drama in 1990, the M Net book prize in 1997 and the State President award (former President Nelson Mandela: Order for Excellent Service – silver) in 1999. It is an honor for the UFS to have this gifted and creative person among its former students. This conferment is a fitting recognition of his status as leading South African writer.

Ms Antjie Krog (D Litt (hc)) – well-known South African poet and former student of the UFS. Her popularity as poet is evident in her piercing honesty and unequalled power of expression. Some of the awards she has received include the Eugéne Marais prize in 1973, the Rapport prize in 1987, the Hertzog prize in 1990 and the RAU prize in 2000. Her writing has been translated into seven languages. She has also received numerous honors for her involvement in and journalistic documentation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) proceedings. It is therefore an exceptional privilege for her alma mater to honor her with an honorary doctorate.

Prof Jaap Steyn (D Litt (et phil) (hc)) – recently, Prof Steyn again distinguished himself as biographer whose thorough research is apparent in the published biographies of illustrious writers such as NP van Wyk Louw and MER. The numerous awards, among which the Stals prize from the South African Academy of Science and Art for the Van Wyk publication, are a matter of record. He conducted the research for this great prize-winning work as honorary professor at the UFS.

Prof Jakes Gerwel (D Phil (hc)) – Chancellor of the University of Rhodes and Director of Naspers, Old Mutual, Gold Fields and Brimstone. His doctoral thesis was published in The Netherlands under the title Literatuur en apartheid. Konsepsies van “gekleurdes” in die Afrikaanse roman tot 1948 (1983). He received an honorary doctorate from Clark College ( Atlanta), the City University of New York and Missouri in the USA, the University of the Western Cape, the University of Cape Town, the University of Natal, Rhodes University, the University of Stellenbosch and the University of the Witwatersrand. He is also outstanding professor in the Humanities at the University of the Western Cape, honorary professor in the Humanities at the University of Pretoria, and was the chairman of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC).

Development Studies:

Dr Frederick van Zyl Slabbert (D Phil (hc)) – for his academic achievements, his endeavors for bringing about a peaceful transition in South Africa and his demonstration of the social investment role of the corporate sector. Dr Van Zyl Slabbert has received honorary degrees from the University of Natal and the Simon Fraser University in Canada. He has published seven books and various academic articles.

Community Service:

Prof Robert G Bringle (D Phil (hc)) – from the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) in the USA. He is currently Chancellor’s Professor of Psychology and Philanthropic Studies at the IUPUI and also Director of the IUPUI’s Centre for Service Learning. He is honored for his exceptional contribution to several of the UFS’s community service projects as well as his role in the advancement of a multi- and inter-disciplinary approach to academic development and the integration of service learning within the faculties of the UFS. He has also made a valuable contribution to the conceptual framework of the UFS’s unique community service policy and more recently to the advancement of a research culture regarding community service.

Higher education:

Dr Khotso Mokhele (D Phil (hc)), President of the National Research Foundation (NRF) is honored for his contribution to the South African higher education sector. He has also made a substantial contribution to the development of the research capacity of universities and technikons in South Africa. Dr Mokhele was born in Bloemfontein and matriculated at the Moroka High School in Thaba Nchu.

Prof Saleem Badat (D Phil (hc)), the Chief Executive Officer of the Council on Higher Education (CHE). Prof Badat has devoted himself to transforming and building South African higher education, and has constantly challenged the higher education sector to retain the moral basis of higher education and tackle its challenges with intellectual honesty, ingenuity, creativity and courage. He is honored for his intellectual leadership in the development of a equitable, just and quality higher education system in South Africa.

Law:

Prof HA (Boelie) Wessels (D Legum (hc)) – for his contribution to the fields of Roman Law, Legal History at the UFS. He is currently a part-time lecturer at the UFS’s Faculty of Law.

Medicine:

Prof CJC Nel (D Phil (hc) Posthumous) – for the way in which he strived for the advancement of excellent medical education in the country. Prof Nel also did pioneering work in the field of transformation in higher education. Under his guidance the School of Medicine at the UFS became one of the first medical schools to adopt a parallel-medium system of instruction.

Music:

Prof Leo Quayle (D Mus (hc)) – for the significant contributions he has made to the development of music – not only in Bloemfontein, but also on national level and abroad. His initiative, enthusiasm and dedication contributed to the eventual founding of the Free State Musicon, as well as the first symphony orchestra and the first string quartet in Bloemfontein. Prof Quayle is a former head of the Department of Music at the UFS.

Prof Jack de Wet (D Mus (hc)) – well-known for his exceptional contribution to violin tuition in South Africa. As pedagogue of international stature, he still moulds violinists who compete at national and international level. At an advanced stage of his career, he still actively conveys his knowledge, experience and distinctive insight in his field of speciality to yet another new generation of young violin teachers. Today the symphony orchestras in Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth also stand on the foundations laid by him.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
7 October 2004

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