UT Austin Initiative Transforms Parking Tickets Into Home-Cooked Meals

By Itza Martinez

Reporting Texas

The Food for Fines program, enacted in 2018, at The University of Texas at Austin, has been a biannual tradition where students with eligible parking tickets can dismiss them through donating nonperishable food items that go on UT Outpost’s shelves. 

The UT Outpost is a free on-campus food pantry that serves enrolled students experiencing food insecurity. According to the Division of Student Affairs 2023-24 Annual Impact Report, UT Outpost distributed 43 tons of food to students last school year. 

“Once we hit essentially the midpoint to (the) further end of the semester, that’s maybe when students’ scholarship money is running low or maybe they’re having to think of other expenses,” said Valeria Martin, director of UT Outpost. “It can be a tricky time for students to make ends meet.”

While November is often considered the month of giving, the timing of this program is not solely because of the holiday season.

“Parking and transportation wanted to ensure that if a student maybe had a bar on their account because of a citation, that they could participate in this program, remove that citation from their account and could then enroll for their next semester of classes,” Martin said.

The program is held in November and April to incentivize students who might not donate otherwise. Last academic year, the program collected 1,260 donations and waived $15,208 worth of citations according to Blanca Gamez, director of UT Parking and Transportation Services (PTS).

“We are an auxiliary service that is part of the university, which means we collect no funding from the state or from the university, so we’re self supporting,” Gamez said.

While the partnership between PTS and UT Outpost has allowed the program to keep running, Gamez noted that it comes at a cost—but one that is worth the investment.

“So we have the ability and the means to partner with a different organization on campus, like the UT Outpost and help them fill their pantry while meeting the needs of the campus community, then it’s a great avenue for us,” Gamez said.

This semester, Food for Fines is accepting dried staple food items like pasta, rice, beans and soup. 

“Students really value having food that they can cook for themselves…so having these types of food items stocked in the pantry is really beneficial because we can give students that opportunity to have those items at home so they can cook those meals for themselves that remind them of home,”Martin said.

For those interested in waiving parking citations with the Food for Fines program, the last day to donate food items is Nov. 27.

“If you’re participating specifically in the Food for Fines program… then you need to make sure that you stop by a staffed garage office with your canned food donations in order to ensure that that citation meets those qualified stipulations,” Gamez said.