Ephraise, a year-old registered student organization, hopes to connect students at the College to local charity work, but it does so through a unique approach: food.
From Feb. 4 to Feb. 10, Ephraise ran a meal swipe fundraiser, a practice in which Dining Services deducts one swipe from student volunteers’ accounts and applies that money to a given cause. This time, Ephraise raised money for the Berkshire Immigrant Center, which helps immigrants navigate the complex U.S. immigration system, and the Elizabeth Freeman Center, which aims to mitigate domestic and sexual violence in Berkshire County.
Jason Lu ’26 and Myla Vera ’26 established Ephraise last spring to bridge the gap between students at the College and the broader Berkshire community through food-based fundraising. “We wanted to do something that actively involved students and the community, but specifically with food,” Lu said. Lu, who also works for Dining Services, said he wanted to combine his passions for food and community engagement.
Vera told the Record that exposing students to a breadth of cuisines was another driving force behind founding the organization. “It also gives students a chance to learn about cultures,” she said. So far, the organization has raised funds by selling Chinese food cooked by Lu, and it sold homemade Mexican desserts in a fundraiser on Tuesday.
Yuling Lin ’26, a member of the Ephraise board, says that the organization also hopes to reduce food waste. “We noticed that there’s just so much food waste and a lack of appreciation for our accessibility to food here on campus,” she said. “We wanted to utilize this community-building power that food has.”
After witnessing successful meal swipe fundraisers led by other student organizations, such as Williams Recovery of All Perishable Surplus (WRAPS), the Ephraise board decided to arrange their own. “People are buying these meal swipes, but then they’re not actually using [them], and that’s wasted money on their end,” Lu said. “That money can easily get turned into our fundraisers. It’s a different kind of waste, but we still want to help reduce that a bit.”
Vera emphasized the accessibility of the meal-swipe fundraiser as compared to other fundraising options. “[For] our last fundraiser, I think the highest [price per dish] was like $8,” Vera said. “But sometimes you don’t want to spend $8… A swipe is something that’s a bit more manageable. No one does not want to help.”
To host the fundraiser, the Ephraise board had to do significant planning. The College restricts the campus to two meal swipe fundraisers per semester, so Ephraise had to reach out to the Chaplains’ Office early in the fall to get their plan approved for the spring.
Additionally, the current information available about organizing meal-swipe fundraisers is limited, Vera said. “I wish there was more information on how to do a swipe fundraiser, because the way we found out was through asking someone else who actually did it,” Vera said.
In the end, the board’s work paid off, as they collected 300 donations from students and raised $1,500 in just two days. The proceeds were split evenly between the Elizabeth Freeman Center and the Berkshire Immigrant Center.
Compared to previous Ephraise events, the meal-swipe fundraiser was wildly successful, Lin said. In a fundraiser last fall in which volunteers sold home-cooked Chinese food, the group raised around $400.
Looking ahead, Ephraise plans to expand its outreach to include more faculty, Vera said. “Involving professors a bit more was something we wanted to do from the start — maybe having events where students can share a meal with a professor or cook [with them],” she said.
“It’s just kind of mind-boggling to think about,” Lin added. “It really puts into perspective what sort of resources are available on campus that a lot of people don’t really know [about], but that we can easily utilize to help local organizations.”
Phoebe Pallesen contributed reporting.
