The University of Winnipeg is home to one of the most innovative, healthy and cutting-edge campus food providers in the country, if not the world.

Mainstream media from across Canada have hailed Diversity as a pioneer in community-driven food services, benefiting students, faculty, staff and the university’s immediate community through its Community Economic Development business model.

But credit for the idea for Diversity Food Services, which has thus far belonged to the University of Winnipeg, should actually go to the University of Winnipeg Students’ Association (UWSA), and to you, the student.

Throughout the early 2000s, campus food services were provided by Chartwells, a private company whose sole motive was profit - not providing healthy food, and not contributing to the community.

The UWSA organized numerous surveys of the student body to gauge the top issues facing students.

The results: issue number one was tuition fees, issue number two was food on campus.

Students at the time also identified that they would prefer local and organic food products, biodegradable containers and a not-for-profit philosophy.

Students recognized that the food provided by Chartwells was inadequate and over-priced. The UWSA, in response, developed a business plan in 2003/2004, and joined with SEED Winnipeg with projected funding from the Winnipeg Partnership Agreement.

This plan was called Food Cubed Social Enterprise Development.

The goal of Food Cubed was for the students’ association to partner with SEED Winnipeg and the university to provide local, organic, affordable and healthy food services to students, while at the same time ensuring community involvement.

Sound familiar?

Unfortunately for the UWSA, the university’s contract with Chartwells had a number of years left, and Food Cubed was shelved. The UWSA then turned to creating Soma Café, opened in 2008, as a healthy food alternative to Chartwells.

In the meantime, and unbeknownst to the UWSA, the University of Winnipeg had already begun planning the creation of Diversity, using the same (or at least similar) business model the UWSA had proposed.

The UWSA, in fact, resubmitted the Food Cubed proposal in 2008 to facilitate the opportunity to provide food in the new science complex.

Again: familiar?

The fact is: Diversity was a student idea.

UWSA resources went into developing a full business plan, philosophy and funding model five years before Diversity Food Services was launched in 2009.

Credit should go to chef Ben Kramer and the team at Diversity for the formidable execution of this great idea, which in retrospect, the UWSA would never have had the capacity to operate.

As students we should be proud that one of the nation’s most inventive, high quality, socially responsible campus food providers is actually modeled after our proposal, and in an environment where plagiarism is generally frowned upon, it would be nice if students were recognized for it.

David Jacks was president of the University of Winnipeg Students’ Association in 2007/2008, and is currently majoring in International Development Studies and Rhetoric, Writing and Communication.

Published in Volume 66, Number 10 of The Uniter (November 2, 2011)