MEAL SWIPES PROGRAM
The Swipes Drive is a mutual aid program started by UCLA students in 2009. At the end of each quarter, we let students donate their extra meal swipes that would otherwise go to waste. These donations are then converted into meal vouchers that off-campus students experiencing food insecurity can access in the following quarter. We also use the donated swipes to upgrade eligible students from an 11R to a 14R meal plan at the start of each year. In the last school year alone, we were able to provide
140,000+ meals
to students through our meal swipes program!How to Request Swipes
Students experiencing food-insecurity can request meal swipes through the
Economic Crisis Response Team
(link to their website). After filling out a brief form, students that meet their eligibility criteria will have meal swipes loaded directly onto their Bruincard! However, this is a limited resource, since it is supplied through student donations. Once those donations have been used, the program will close until more student donations are received for the next quarter.
How to Donate Swipes
1. Students can donate their meal swipes through the online donation form in the Get Involved tab. This donation form closes at
2pm on the Friday of finals week
and the indicated number of meal swipes will only be donated once the quarter has ended.2. Students on an R meal plan are also able to donate any swipes that they do not use during finals week.
3. All students with a meal plan can input
“999”
as the amount of swipes they want to donate and the remainder of their swipes will be donatedAFTER
the quarter has ended.4. Students can click the checkbox indicating they would like to donate their swipes at the end of the remaining quarters of that academic year.