Baala Shakya, Photography Editor

Yale Hospitality will halve the number of chances students have to donate part of their meal plans this year, reducing a biannual student-led fundraising program to once per year. 

The Yale Hunger and Homelessness Action Project, or YHHAP, fast previously offered students the choice to donate the value of their meal swipes twice per year to local nonprofits addressing food and housing insecurity. 

In an email to members of the YHHAP board, which the News obtained, Assistant Vice President of Yale Hospitality Jodi Westwater told YHHAP student organizers that “Yale’s budgetary constraints this fiscal year” mean Hospitality can only support the fast once this year. 

The decision marks the latest in a series of Hospitality changes rolled out over the past year, including meal plan alterations and varied lunch menus across residential college dining halls. In statements to the News, Yale Hospitality has often cited changing demand for cuts to services. 

In her email, Westwater wrote that students would only be able to donate their limited points towards the fast, instead of their meal swipes. She cited complications associated with the unlimited access to dining halls associated with the new Full meal plans, “which complicates the concept of ‘donating a meal,’” Westwater wrote in an email to the News.

Of the changes in the past year — including the removal of hot lunches from some residential dining halls and the requirement to use points for lunches at Commons instead of meal swipes — none have, according to Yale Hospitality, been a means to reduce costs due to budgetary constraints. 

The cuts to YHHAP follow Yale’s summer announcement that it was pausing hiring and construction, and reducing non-salary costs by five percent in anticipation of the eight percent tax on its endowment returns mandated by the Republican tax-and-spending bill.

Westwater did not respond to the News’ questions about budgetary constraints.

YHHAP organizers said the changes are likely to affect the amount of money the program raises for charities in New Haven. 

In fall 2024, YHHAP raised $18,360, $13,176 of which came from 1,777 student meal swipe donations, according to a joint statement by Alison Lee ’27 and Jaeyee Jung ’27, the co-directors of YHHAP. 

According to YHHAP leaders, Yale Hospitality now plans to allow students to donate their dining points at $0.50 per point — half of their monetary value. However, unlike meal swipes, which are limited per meal period, dining points are capped between 300 and 600 for the entire semester, depending on meal plan. 

“This is not the shocking part, as Yale Hospitality has historically not matched meal swipes for their exact dollar amount,” Kate Johnson ’27, the YHHAP fast co-chair, said about the value of dining points donated to YHHAP. “What is most upsetting is the decision to operate the fast once a year instead of once a semester.” 

Previously, each meal swipe students donated equaled $6 to $8 for YHHAP. YHHAP organizers have long been frustrated by the discrepancy in the value of meal swipes versus what Hospitality contributed to the fundraiser.

Because only half the value of students’ dining points will be donated to YHHAP by Hospitality, Isabella Barboza-Rodriguez ’26, another fast co-chair, wrote YHHAP will encourage students to donate directly to the fundraising effort this year.

“Institutional budget cuts may weaken student-led efforts to support New Haveners in their work against housing and food insecurity,” Barboza-Rodriguez wrote in an email to the News.

The first fast hosted by YHHAP — previously the Yale Hunger Action Project — was hosted in 1974 and raised $5,000.