The Carleton Food Collective released their audited financial statements on Oct. 14 to the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) for the coming year in the hope they will receive their annual levy.
The Food Collective runs the Garden Spot, which provides free vegan meals to students on campus. The collective’s levy was not released in 2013 after CUSA deemed that additional financial records were needed to lend transparency to the spending of the levy.
CUSA president Folarin Odunayo said the audited statements are the records CUSA had originally requested.
“This is what we’ve been asking for from the beginning. A statement of financial position is a great step,” said Odunayo. “I think it shows their willingness to be accountable and I’m very, very happy that they submitted that.”
The documents were produced following a meeting with CUSA and the Board of Governors in July, when parties agreed that the levy would be issued once the financial documents were released.
The levy was refunded to undergraduate student accounts last year, after it was deemed the financial reports needed to be audited to count as sufficient proof. The levy is approximately $2 per student.
Wesley Petite, a Food Collective member, said the group managed to function last year on the savings from previous years.
“We had savings from responsible fiscal management in past years,” he said.
The Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) issued their portion of the levy last year, contributing to the collective’s budget.
The documents released included a financial statement, an operational plan for 2014-15, and a draft fee agreement. Collins Burrows, a third party auditor, did the audit.
Odunayo said the main holdup for the funds is financial accountability.
“I’ve always maintained that the service the Food Collective provides could be useful on our campus,” said Odunayo. “We just have to make sure that when students are paying $60,000 a year to this group it’s spent accountably.”
Petite said that the collective is important to students because it fosters a critical point of view.
“It provides a place for people to express and develop a critical voice towards corporate presence on campus, and be on campus pushing for more sustainable practices,” he said.
Odunayo said this is a good step on the way to regaining the levy.
“It’s taken a year but I think it’s a good step to release those documents and I’m happy that they did,” he said.
Petite said that completion of the audit was the next step in rebuilding the collective.
“Our completion of the audit is a big step in re-establishing the Carleton Food Collective and completing the tasks that should characterize out regular operation,” he said.
Related Articles
