PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Junior E Andrews, Student at Medgar College and USS Student Center, on Food Insecurity and Civic Engagement
1:39:42
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145 sec
Junior E Andrews, a student at Medgar College and part of the USS Student Center, discusses the link between food insecurity and civic engagement among CUNY students. He argues that students who struggle with hunger are less likely to participate in civic activities, including voting.
- Andrews emphasizes that students need proper nutrition to engage in campus and citywide activities.
- He mentions a voter registration drive at his school that connects hunger with voting.
- Andrews suggests that food is often used as an incentive to encourage students to register to vote.
Junior E Andrews
1:39:42
Good morning, everyone.
1:39:44
My name is Junior E Andrews.
1:39:46
I'm a student at Medgar College at Crown Heights, and I'm also part of the USS Student Center.
1:39:59
Sorry.
1:39:59
It was a little too late, so we just get my nose and check.
1:40:04
Alright.
1:40:04
So my reason for coming today is basically It's a topic that has been on my mind for a while where students is concerned, food and security.
1:40:16
I have to do a higher education because a lot of students in the college has EBT cards.
1:40:21
But I can't use it on the campus itself to purchase meals.
Eric Dinowitz
1:40:30
I just wanna remind you this is a hearing on civic engagement.
1:40:33
Yeah.
1:40:33
Acuni?
1:40:33
Okay.
Junior E Andrews
1:40:34
Yeah.
1:40:35
But part of the reason I brought that up is because part of if you don't if you're able to eat, you can't physically engage in much things.
1:40:42
And it's part of the high education process that a student must be able to have food, to engage in anything in campuses or anything citywide.
1:40:56
So one of the things of civil engagement that will happen in this school, we have in voter registration tomorrow, and that is part of the drive of connecting hunger with voting.
1:41:08
Vacicipate attention, if they don't have that capacity to buy food, they're not engaged.
1:41:13
And if they're not engaged, they're not feeling responsibility to come vote for anybody.
1:41:18
Or to have any kind of civil engagements in the day to day activities.
1:41:25
Yes.
1:41:25
So my yeah.
1:41:28
Thank you.
1:41:29
So my contribution to this hearing basically is to link both civic engagement with the Honda situation and college campuses around New York City.
1:41:39
So if the students are not able to concentrate and focus on things that from a perspective of having nutrition, Civic engagement is a waste of time.
1:41:49
They will not come out and vote.
1:41:50
They will not be engaged.
1:41:52
Because in order for us to get them to register to vote, we have to have some type of food or something to convince them to come to register.
1:41:59
And then think he should think about voting.
1:42:05
That's Mike.
1:42:06
Thank you.