As a student-worker at UCSB I have seen first-hand the amount of food that goes to waste at the end of every workday. Massive amounts of all sorts of nutritious meals are collected, tossed into trash bags, and thrown away to rot. By far the most frustrating part of this act is knowing that there are simple ways for this food to be redistributed- not only lowering our campus’ amount of waste but also addressing our community’s issue of food insecurity. Oftentimes, the Associated Students Food Bank Program is not enough to cover the amount of food that ends up being tossed at my workplace- which is just one of multiple stores on campus, (not even including UCSB’s four additional dining halls.) This petition calls for the University of California, Santa Barbara to invest more in the AS Food bank in order to give them more resources and staff to meet the heavy demand of waste, while also allowing student-workers to receive leftover meals at dining halls that would otherwise be thrown away, as both an incentive for their hard-work and a way to combat the UC’s high amount of food waste. This is just a small step in solving a crucial issue while also benefiting our campus community.