UBC Sprouts Cafe

As a food co-operative solely run by student volunteers, Sprouts is a friendly and inclusive community that supports reducing food insecurity on campus. We invite everyone to bring their diverse skills to help our initiatives sprout (ha)!

We operate out of  Sprouts Cafe in the basement of the LIFE Building. Depending on the position, volunteers gain exposure to a variety of experiences including safe food handling, cooking, baking, serving, customer service and much more! As well as promoting healthy and sustainable food practices within the UBC community, you can be sure that the warmth of the Sprouts community and the awesome people you'll meet will make the UBC experience even better. Let’s fight food insecurity on campus together!

Volunteer intakes happen at the start of every term. For updates, follow our instagram @ubcsprouts and join the Sprouts Community Discord

 No experience is required and everyone is welcome! However, you must be:

1. A current UBC student with a valid student number
2. Able to commit to a position and its responsibilities for the entirety of a term.
3. Fully vaccinated and willing to provide proof.

Sprouts is committed to sustainable food systems. We seek to enable food security at UBC and beyond in the greater Vancouver community by encouraging and empowering ecological, social, and economic sustainability. Through our various initiatives, we endeavor to make nutritious, affordable, and minimally-packaged food accessible to everyone on campus. There are few things that bind society to nature as intimately as food and it is clear that amidst anthropogenic climate change and polarizing social inequality, solutions to food security must be sought beyond the realm of agricultural production alone. To address such issues, it is necessary to acknowledge the entrenched political, economic, social, and environmental systems that implicitly intersect with sustaining both ourselves and our homes. We need our land to be able to feed future generations, our natural environments to be protected, and the producers of our food to be equitably compensated for their labour. In deciding which products to carry, we consider all inputs from the field to the fork.

Our story began in 1997 with the creation of the UBC Natural Food Co-op. In 2023, we operate as a volunteer run food co-operative with multiple programs that combat food insecurity on campus.

In 2008, Sprouts was renovated and re-opened as a volunteer-run café, store, and community space serving hot lunches, coffee, and baked goods and selling organic, locally-grown produce and minimally-packaged staple and snack items. Sprouts also ran a bulk buying club, a Sprouts box delivery program, and continues to host Community Eats, a by-donation lunch on Fridays.

In 2013 Seedlings Cafe opened in the penthouse of the Thea Koerner House, however, in 2020 Seedling was closed due to capacity and funding.

After a fundraising campaign and renovations to the LIFE building, our Sprouts Cafe location opened in January 2019, which can be found now in the basement of the LIFE Building.

We had to close all our operations during the 2020-2021 academic year due to the covid-19 pandemic restrictions.

After an affordability task force was established at UBC, a one-time funding was granted to Sprouts allowing us to introduce our By-Donation Produce Market and Free Meals Program in 2021.

Throughout 2022, Sprouts tailored our initiatives to focus on prioritizing food security work on campus. A Community Fridge was introduced along with a Saturday Distro program where we  practice the principles of mutual aid through distributing meals to our neighbour’s in the Downtown Eastside and our community on campus.

In 2022, Sprouts re-opened with 6 active programs! We have redirected our initiatives to provide our community with immediate support and a space to come together. Find out more about each initiative under their website pages.

Come visit us and you will find a friendly and warm space where everyone is welcome to enjoy that time-honoured combination of good food and good company.

At Sprouts we strive to:

• fight food insecurity on campus
• advocate for community needs
• create an accessible, inclusive, and safe space to build community
• provide tangible food items as immediate response to the ongoing affordability crisis
• acknowledge the root causes that lead to food insecure communities
• de-stigmatize free food
• make local, organic, and fair-trade foods accessible to the UBC community
• promote and increase awareness of  local food producers practicing sustainable farming techniques
• promote and support fair economic development abroad by fostering discussion around the complexities of global trade
• provide a diversity of people with high quality leadership and job skills
• operate a business where ethics, the environment, and social responsibility take precedence over profits
• create educational opportunities around health and nutrition, and sustainable food systems; fostering critical thought and ethical global citizenship
• create an aware community at UBC bound together by a common love of good food, positive social change, and a sense of collective responsibility