Frugalicious Mamas wants to keep The New School and NYC community fed sustainably

Frugalicious Mamas (@frugaliciousmamas on Instagram), founded by New School students Pepi Ng and Angie Li, is centered around sharing sustainability practices and keeping New School students fed by sharing free food at events around campus. The duo’s latest venture is a food drive they are hosting in the University Center Dining Hall until December 15.

The drive was organized in collaboration with Senior Director of Dining Operations, Chef Anne Moriarta and City Harvest Food Rescue Organization, but this isn’t the first time the students have partnered with them. Ng and Li also worked with Chef Anne and City Harvest on the first iteration of their food drive, which took place at the end of the spring 2023 semester.

At their first food drive “the tally was, not including beverages that were donated … well over 6,000 pounds of food,” Chef Anne said. “I think it was pleasantly surprising for [Ng] and [Li]. They were like, ‘Oh, what, where are we going to put this?’” This success encouraged them to continue doing food drives at the end of every semester, so students could use last-minute dining dollars for a good cause, rather than scramble to get rid of them. 

Ng and Li, who are both third-years at Parsons School of Design majoring in Design and Technology and Communication Design respectively, had the idea to start Frugalicious Mamas after the part-time faculty strike during the fall 2022 semester. They described seeing a lot of tuition-paying students and parents beginning to question how their money was being spent. “We specifically focus on how people can get the best bang for their buck out of their tuition by utilizing the food resources around campus that are free at events or club meetings, that are all paid for by our tuition dollars,” Li said. 

According to a report by U.S. News & World Report, New School students pay an average of $61,587 per year in tuition, after receiving financial aid and scholarships. Although meal plans are an option for all students at The New School, and are required for students who choose the dorms, they come with their own set of affordability issues. 

Meal plans can add anywhere between $850 to over $3,000 to a student’s tuition. “I knew some people with the level one plan that ran out of money before the end of the year,” said Luke Shafer, a junior at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts at The New School. “I had to spot them because food in the dining hall, even with the meal plan, is really expensive.”

Finding affordable food is an issue for college students around the country. A study done by The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice at Temple University, said 23% of undergraduate students, and 12% of grad students are experiencing food insecurity in 2023. This means that 1 in 4 undergraduate students are experiencing food insecurity. 

“Food is a daily necessity for everyone,” Ng said. “It’s hard when you see students not having the time to meal prep, or not having enough resources to buy a fresh meal, especially [because] New York is really expensive.”

When Ng and Li started the Frugalicious Mamas Instagram account, they were independently updating their stories with free food around campus but quickly developed a way for their followers to assist them. 

Through an Instagram poll, they created a group chat for students who wanted to be “Honorary Mamas”. These students could then send locations and photos of wherever they found free food to the group chat, which would then be posted on the story by Ng or Li. “It’s cool to see when the story goes live, and then people start showing up,” said Michael Stockdale, an “Honorary Mama” and fourth-year Design and Technology major at Parsons. “People really do flock for free food. At the end of the day I always see people be like ‘Oh my God, look what we got, we saw the Instagram posts!’”

Ng and Li also work hand in hand with different university departments, such as Student Leadership and Involvement, who help promote their initiative. “[George Saad] from SLI is part of our ‘Honorary Mamas’ group chat, and because he’s the one who always organizes [SLI] events, he knows when there are leftovers and is always promoting this leftover food in our group chat as well,” Ng said.

Along with food drives and free food promotions, the account also hosts supply drives and has a group chat for New School students wanting to share their dining dollars. They call this the “Sugar Mama Initiative” and refer to students who share their dollars as “Sugar Mamas” and those who receive as “Sugar Babies.” 

While the two have seen success with their account and recent food drives, they continue to worry about how to get the Frugalicious Mamas account more exposure and who to pass it on to in the future. “The expectation is once you graduate, we’re no longer going to be as connected with this school. Unless [Ng] wants to be going and checking the UC if they have food until she’s like 80,” Li said.

Despite this, they continue to push The New School community to take advantage of their resources, as well as use their privileges to support those in need. “This institution, I always felt like it had the best people in it. I think that the professors are awesome, and the students are awesome. I am just so excited to actually have the opportunity to engage more with people who work in these communities and to understand their perspectives and their struggles, even though I am just there to get food,” Li said.