Our Programs

On top of being a very community-oriented, extra-sustainable grocery store, the Berkeley Student Food Collective has many programs to help better serve those in our area. Many of these programs help fight food insecurity, reduce food waste, and even help educate our members.

Sliding Scale Program

Although the student food collective offers a wide variety of delicious products, some of them do not sell before the expiration date. Several times each day, members of our food preparation team use food that they predict will not sell in order to create super appetizing dishes of their own choice. These dishes are then placed in the refrigerator behind the sales counter, where people can pay anywhere between $1-$5 for them. Those who can afford the food can choose to pay a greater amount to support us while those struggling financially can pay however much they wish. By doing this, our food preparation team members have an opportunity to improve their culinary skills, we can reduce food waste, and finally fight food insecurity in our community. This is truly a win-win situation for everyone.

Pay It Forward Program

Started by the Anti-Oppression Committee, this program was created to allow customers to subsidize the groceries and meals of other store patrons. The “Pay it Forward” program lets patrons to purchase vouchers worth either $1, $3 or $5, which they can then pin to the “Pay it Forward” board, located in the store. Anyone can remove up to $5 worth of vouchers from the board and use them to purchase food, produce or other groceries from the store. For further details on this program check out the article that DailyCal wrote featuring it!

Monthly Newsletter

We release a “monthly” newsletter several times each semester. They contain interesting tidbits, relevant information, and some general entertainment.

Our Berkeley Student Food Collective is not only sustainable, convenient, and community-oriented, but also beats many big grocery stores in providing you the best deals. Check out some of these bargains under our FAQ page!