On Nov. 3, WKU’s Student Government Association unveiled the official beginning of its new initiative, the Swipe it Forward program.
According to a student-wide email from SGA, the program allows students to donate meal swipes. These swipes can only be used at Fresh Food Company to other students who have applied to receive one in an attempt to help students dealing with food insecurity.
Senior Maggie Yelton, chief of staff for SGA from Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, said the program has been in the works since the Fall 2024 semester. Since then, SGA members have been collaborating with the Dean of Students Office, the Office of Sustainability, and the Restaurant Group.
Yelton also said that she originally wanted to help create a way of recycling meal swipes that students don’t use.
Yelton said the Swipe it Forward program is available to any WKU student wanting to donate or receive meal swipes to be used at Fresh and can be accessed through a confidential online portal.
Previous Talisman staffer Preston Jenkins, chief communications officer for SGA from Kevil, Kentucky, said that he thinks that the online portal is very beneficial to the future of the program.
“Going in person and asking for food assistance is very difficult and I’m sure that’s stopping a lot of students from actually getting that assistance,” Jenkins said.
Students can apply at any point in the semester to receive meal swipes, and are required to answer questions surrounding their food security situation. Jenkins said that the short survey in the application will be used by organizations involved in the program to see why and how many students are struggling to know where future support is needed.
According to Yelton, once a student applies for a meal swipe three times, they will be required to talk with the Dean of Students Martha Sales to see what WKU can do to help students struggling with food insecurity.
Jenkins said students can only donate meal swipes during certain periods of time, and are only allowed to give up to three. After donating, all meal swipes received are collected and distributed to students who applied.
“People want to give back,” Yelton said. “You don’t know who your swipe is going to but you know it’s gonna benefit someone.”
Yelton said that for the trial run of the Swipe it Forward program, which ran from Nov. 3 to Nov. 7, 52 students applied to get one of the 100 swipes received.
Savanna Kurtz, senior communications disorders major from Bowling Green and student vice president for SGA, said that she was compelled to donate after hearing how common food insecurity was during an SGA meeting.
“We may have no idea that people that we walk past on campus may be feeling hungry,” said Kurtz. “So many people that you interact with daily may be dealing with hunger, and it is so important that if you do have these extra meal swipes, one meal can go a long way for someone.”
The debut of the program came just three days after the beginning of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefit cuts in funding due to the U.S government shutdown, according to National Public Radio.
According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, SNAP benefits provide government funding to low income people for food. One in eight Kentuckians depend on SNAP for food.
“I think this is just a more talked about thing in our world right now because of SNAP and EBT being cut off, that people have honestly been more open to talking about food insecurity and just maybe being in need or wanting to donate and wanting to help out,” Yelton said.
According to SGA’s donation website, for the rest of the 2025-2026 academic year, donation periods will be; Dec. 1 to Dec. 5, Feb. 16 to Feb. 19, March 23 to March 26, and April 20 to April 23.
“We don’t want a student hungry because if there is a student that’s hungry, they can’t do good in their classes; they can’t focus,” Jenkins said. “This is like the building block for anything else you might need to do as a student.”