Free Store – UofL News Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:43:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 UofL helps December grad break the poverty cycle /post/uofltoday/uofl-helps-december-grad-break-the-poverty-cycle/ Wed, 07 Dec 2022 18:53:57 +0000 /?p=57752 Olivia Yeager decorated two caps for her trip across the commencement stage Dec. 16 to receive her bachelor’s of science degree in sociology.
One is filled with sunflowers that remind her to always look toward the light and be grateful.
The other is a tribute to her late father, Andre Yeager, a pizza chef who died of cancer-related complications when she was just 4 years old. She remembers vividly the day he traveled miles to be there on her first day of preschool and help her get on the bus.
“There’s a photo of my first day of preschool … he was sick and he made the trip to get on the school bus on the first day of preschool and I remember I had my little backpack and my little dress and he was helping me up the steps and that’s a memory that I will never forget, I will never forget that,” she said.
The message from Andre, a diehard UofL sports fan who never finished high school, is etched on her heart and soul: Get an education. If she forgets, their last name, written in his handwriting from a nametag used the day she was born, is tattooed on her arm.
The first-generation college student (her mother graduated high school but did not pursue higher education) grew up in the Pleasure Ridge Park area of Louisville, sharing a small apartment with her two younger half-brothers, her mother and her mother’s boyfriend.
“We were on food stamps, the government insurance, all those things. Clothes at Goodwill, hand-me-downs, nothing new,” she said. “There was weeks where we really didn’t have a lot to eat so it was really ramen noodles, cereal, water. … Dry cereal, sometimes not even some milk to go with it.”
Yeager knew she wanted a different life, that she needed to break the cycle of “generational poverty” before she even knew what that meant.
“What’s interesting is that I’ve always had that feeling deep-down, but here at the University of Louisville I’ve taken so many courses on social stratification and problems and things like that and that’s what they reiterate, is that if you don’t make that change, you’re going to be in that same situation,” she said. “So it’s interesting that I knew that even before I was educated on the issue.”
Graduating from PRP high school in 2019, Yeager earned a full-tuition scholarship to the University of Kentucky and set off for Lexington. She was already ahead of the game, having taken AP and dual-credit classes.
When the Covid-19 pandemic forced her to return to Louisville the following spring, she realized she didn’t want to leave.
“Even before I started my college career I had connections here at the University of Louisville, so it just felt like home to me,” she said.
She transferred, but a lack of financial resources and the pandemic stress had taken its toll. Yeager withdrew, took a semester off to work and save money, then started again, encouraged by her boyfriend, Jacob Sams, and his family.
This semester, she was president of the Sociology Student Association. She credits and thanks professors and fellow students in the sociology and political science departments (she minored in political science) for always supporting her.
“The people around you, they want you to succeed and they make that known at all, at all times,” she said.
Additionally, UofL recognizes the struggles of low-income students, she said.
“If you are low income like I grew up, there’s great resources for you here like the— you can go get food that you need no questions asked. There’s also theif you can’t afford clothes, you can go and get what you need,” she said.
She took as many classes as she could every semester, determined to finish as soon as she could. Despite taking time off, she’s graduating a semester earlier than originally scheduled.
Perhaps most important, she didn’t limit her education to the classroom. Of mixed race descent, she joined the UofL Black Student Union and explored a part of her heritage that had been lost to her when her father died.
“As a woman of color, I didn’t really grow up around people who looked like me,” said Yeager, 21, who identified as white as a child.
The friendships she made helped her educate herself about … herself.
“The main thing is that I am who I am, and I should be proud of who I am,” she said, “regardless of whether or not people look at me or perceive me as ‘oh, she’s white’ or ‘oh, she’s Black’ or ‘oh, she’s mixed.’ I’m just who I am and I can be both at the same time and be equally as inclusive and important in each role.”
Yeager plans to work in the human resources field following graduation and hopes to then pursue a master’s degree. Her 18-year-old half-brother, William White, earned a full-tuition scholarship to UofL and began this fall. Her youngest half-brother, Ben White, 12, has also set his sights high and wants to be a meteorologist at NASA. “We are trying to help him the best that we can to get him to that,” she said.
]]> UofL students plan for zero waste /post/uofltoday/uofl-students-plan-for-zero-waste/ Fri, 17 Jul 2020 14:10:37 +0000 http://www.uoflnews.com/?p=50811 Jacob Foushee and Lily Stewart are two University of Louisville students whose focus is on the bottom.

As zero waste interns with the Sustainability Council, Jacob and Lily are helping formulate new ways the university can lessen its trash. UofL is already making strides in recycling and composting as ways to keep trash out of landfills, but the students are participating in a summer program that will help find other ways to cut down.

They have become fellows with the Post-Landfill Action Network (PLAN), a nonprofit organization that trains students in zero waste initiatives. It is providing training called “Atlas” to help analyze how much trash UofL produces and how much it may be able to avoid. The fellowship came with a free three-month membership in PLAN for anyone affiliated with UofL.

From now until the end of September, UofL students, faculty and staff looking to reduce waste for a single event, a club or even an entire department have access to the PLAN resources for advice.

Jacob Foushee

“We are really excited to be working with the Post-Landfill Action Network to take our zero waste initiatives to the next level,” said Justin Mog, assistant to the provost for sustainability initiatives. “UofL has made great progress in recent years ramping up our recycling and composting programs and this is the perfect opportunity to build on that progress and to look upstream to reduce waste production overall. It’s a win-win-win when we can save money on both purchasing and disposal while minimizing our environmental impact.”

In 2019, UofL diverted 43% of its waste from landfills, according to the Sustainability Council. The university’s Climate Action Plan has a goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050.

The temporary PLAN membership offers one-on-one advising, access to zero waste manuals and digital resources, and online workshops and trainings.

Lily Stewart

Jacob and Lily, both rising juniors, are interviewing UofL staff and administrators “to better understand how they view waste production on campus as a whole along with strictly within their respective departments,” Jacob said. “With the data we collect, Lily and I — along with the help of PLAN — will score the University of Louisville’s progress towards zero waste while also providing for suggestions on how the university can reduce its waste production, and PLAN will compile this into a detailed report.Using this information, I hope the university will see this as an opportunity to take dramatic steps toward zero waste by following the suggestions given by PLAN or by creating our own inventive solutions.”

As zero waste interns, Jacob and Lily will spend the next year advocating for sustainable waste management practices across UofL. As part of their duties, they are managers of the Free Store, where students and staff can donate household items and clothing and take things they need for free. After being moved out of Unitas Hall, the Free Store is currently looking for a new permanent home in the Student Activities Center.

Jacob is double-majoring in sustainability and geography, while Lily is a sustainability major.

PLAN has about 70 member schools in North America. Visit postlandfill.org and register with any louisville.edu address to get started.

]]> UofL students leading food recovery efforts /post/uofltoday/uofl-students-leading-food-recovery-efforts/ /post/uofltoday/uofl-students-leading-food-recovery-efforts/#respond Mon, 15 Oct 2018 15:10:32 +0000 http://www.uoflnews.com/?p=44347 Inspired by the Sustainability Council’s EcoReps program, students Erin Kurtz and Henny Ransdell are leading an effort to donate the University of Louisville’s leftover food to local food banks and shelters.

Erin, 22, is a senior who will graduate in December. Her double major is in anthropology and sustainability, and she has worked as the university’s Zero Waste intern for the UofL Sustainability Council since fall 2017. Henny, 19, is a sophomore who majors in anthropology and sociology and has been the sustainability office’s communications intern since fall 2017.

They recently founded a chapter at the University of Louisville, making it the second chapter in the state. The national Food Recovery Network (FRN) is a student-led effort with 230 chapters nationwide aimed at combating hunger and food waste. Bellarmine University started Kentucky’s first FRN chapter in 2014 and has donated more than 10,000 pounds of food.

“We are so thrilled to have UofL join the national movement to transform food waste into social justice,” said Justin Mog, UofL’s assistant to the provost for sustainability. “It is exactly these kinds of efforts which we had always dreamed would grow out of our Sustainability Internship program and our new sustainability major. I’m so proud of all the hard work Erin and Henny have put into this and delighted to welcome Erin in December as the very first sustainability alum at UofL.”

Erin and Henny were joined recently by 20-year-old junior Melissa Sternberg, who transferred from Bellarmine University, where she was already involved in its FRN chapter. Melissa is also a sustainability major and is the sustainability assistant in the housing office.

The students are dedicated to environmentalism and social change. When Brian Barnes, a philosophy professor who runs the EcoReps program, brought a student from Bellarmine to UofL to talk about the FRN, Erin and Henny wanted to get involved. They soon became partners and friends.

“Recovering unsold food and delivering it to those who need it not only fulfills a need in the community, it keeps food waste out of landfills,” Erin said. “Sustainability is as much about social issues as it is about environmentalism.”

So far this year, the students have recovered more than 1,000 pounds of food and delivered it to St. Vincent de Paul or Wayside Christian Mission. For the most part, the food has consisted of bagels, pastries and salads from Einstein’s, but leftover fresh mushrooms and potatoes from summer orientation events were also donated by Aramark, UofL’s dining services contractor. The students will train anyone who wants to participate using FRN training materials.

These leftover bagels would have been thrown away, but instead were delivered to the St. Vincent de Paul food pantry.

“We get a text from Einstein’s letting us know they have food for us to take,” Henny said. “One of us goes to get it. We package it in paper lawn waste bags because they are not plastic and they are big. We weigh it and just drive it over. Sometimes we’re busy, but we do our best. We are always looking for more volunteers.”

Among other things, affiliating with the FRN will help the students formalize the process with rules that ensure food safety and track progress.

Erin and Henny have recently secured a space for a food pantry on Belknap Campus (tentatively to be located in the Student Activities Center) for students, staff and faculty. The pantry, expected to open later this semester, will be in addition to the Sustainability Council’s Free Store in Unitas Tower.

Their project is in line with research conducted by Sara Goldrick-Rab, UofL’s 2018 Grawemeyer Award winner in education. Goldrick-Rab’s 2016 book, “Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid and the Betrayal of the American Dream,” discusses the soaring costs of higher education that often results in food and housing insecurity for students.

Look for the students at this year’s Sustainability Fair Oct. 24 in the Humanities Quad for more information. The fair is part of UofL’s annual celebration of Sustainability Week, with more events .

For more information about sustainability at the University of Louisville, .

 

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