0:03  
Good morning, Ryersonians. I'm Victoria McMurtchy.

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And I'm Alexis Periklios close. This is the Rye Report for September 21. We're bringing you the top stories for the week. This week on the show, science literacy week takes over the SLC potential changes to the Ryerson health and dental plan. And Ryerson reacts to the new TTC harassment reporting app, plus an interview with Ryerson's Good Food center.

0:29  
That's the sound of learning. One student runs across a giant cornstarch and water mixture. It turns solid as he puts pressure on it. This is just one activity going on at Ryerson during science literacy week. All activities are free and open to the public. The SLC lobby is filled with hands on experiments. Participants can learn about a new field of science each day. Highlights include mini 3D holograms and blood type testing. Andrew Fryer is a grade 11 student from Pickering. He says he wants to study science in university and science literacy week is a good way for him to try it out. The activities are hosted by various science course unions and Ryerson science literacy group Si-Exchange. A grant from the Canadian government also helped fund the event. Science literacy week runs until September 22.

1:15  
The TTC has launched a new app that lets riders report harassment. Safe TTC allows passengers to send in text messages photos or videos of harassment they run into on their commute. The Apple alert transit officers and if needed the police. riders have mixed feelings about the app. Yamim Misosa is a specialist with Ryerson sexual violence support office. She says she's worried about the apps accessibility.

1:41  
Internet's very spotty on the TTC, so if someone has downloaded this app, what does it mean to actually use it in that space when you don't have access? I think another thing to mention is that internet on your phone is not accessible to everybody. And if we look at it from a student perspective, how many students say you know, there's a certain time where my data is going to run out so I have to turn it off.

2:03  
Valerie Hung, a business student at Ryerson says she's concerned about people abusing the app by sending in fake reports. Others are hopeful that this app will make a difference. Molina Oliva a second year nursing student says this initiative is a good way to raise awareness about harassment on public transit.

2:21  
The RSU wants to fund a new Mental Health Initiative. Allie Yossef is the VP of operations for the RSU who is putting forward this motion. He wants to provide digital counseling for students suffering from mental illnesses. RSU directors and executives will vote on the service at tonight's executive meeting every year just over $1 would be taken from the Student Health Plan already included in tuition to fund the program. Graham Bowl who's working on this project with the RSU says the goal is to help students battle weightless stigmas and financial barriers.

2:53  
According to the Daily Bread, young adults usage of food banks has increased almost 16% over the last year, reporter Spencer Turcotte and Nicholas Baxter spoke with Kimberly Vas, the coordinator with the Good Food Center at Ryerson, about how young adults find themselves in need of a food bank.

3:12  
Of course, we're seeing increase in food bank usage, especially around young people. You're also seeing with people with post secondary education. tuition rates are going up. Minimum wage is not going up, rent is going up. The prices of food have increased significantly over the past several years. So food is becoming very increasingly unaffordable for people life is becoming really unaffordable for people and students because we pay into tuition. It also takes away from our time to be able to work. We're in a very precarious spot where we can't work full time hours. We're paying to study and we have to make sacrifices for education and often, like a fixed like an unfixed cost is food. So that's the one thing that is easy to say, Okay, I'm just gonna eat macaroni and cheese, I'm just gonna eat noodles. But that has huge health ramifications that affects your studies. It causes social isolation, when you can't go out for coffee with friends or you can't go out to the bar or whatnot. It really takes away from the student experience and it just puts undue hardship on our students. The first couple weeks of school we are seeing the younger crowd the full time students come back because they're around. I think also a lot of people don't know about us. And there's also the stigma of coming to the food bank. So those are the challenges that people face in coming here. With like, the younger folks that are 18 to 30 ish, sometimes either don't know about us, or right now in September, we just got our student loan so most people are actually okay. For the most part, it's in a month or two when we'll start seeing increases of the general student body coming by because that's when fun start to run out or, you know, we get stressed with school and we can't work as much and all those things.

4:56  
This is Victoria McMurchy. And I'm Alexis Perikleos you've been like Listening to the Rye report. Tune in next week as we highlight the week's top stories.