NICA renews Food Fridays after students said they were running out of food by the end of the week

The National Institute of Circus Arts has renewed Food Fridays, its donor-funded student meal program, for Term 3. The program exists to ease pressure on students who are training intensively while also managing everyday costs like everyone else, and it runs on donor funding rather than the institute's core budget.

In their own words: "Just not having the extra stress of having to meal prep at the end of the week is actually my saving grace," said one student. Another described a more practical benefit: "It also helps us make sure we are putting the appropriate nutrients in our bodies." A third said simply: "It takes away the worry of trying to plan food, even if it's just for one day."

One comment gets at why the program exists at all: "So helpful! I often have just run out of food by the Friday and having this option has been great (the fruit has also been so handy)." That's the gap Food Fridays is built to close — not an occasional shortfall, but a predictable end-of-week one.

NICA says it plans to expand its student support programs further, though it hasn't specified yet what that expansion will look like.