On Jan. 19, the Students’ Society of McGill (SSMU) revoked Post Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) members’ access to the Free Lunches Program. This decision follows PGSS executives opting out of the meal fee, which previously went towards the now-closed Midnight Kitchen (MK), but since closure has gone towards the program. Postgraduates previously paid $2 CAD per student per term, while undergraduates pay $8 CAD. 

In a written exchange with The Tribune, the PGSS executive team declined to comment on the motivation behind their decision to suspend the fee or the state of ongoing negotiations.

SSMU President Dymetri Taylor explained in an interview with The Tribune that discussions between the two student societies led to the suspension of the fee, stating that PGSS felt they should have been consulted in the decision to close MK. 

According to Taylor, PGSS cited the change in structure from MK to the new Free Lunches Program as their reason for suspending the fee. Executives informed McGill of this decision. In response, the university responded that PGSS executives could not unilaterally decide to opt-out without their members’ say-so. This led to a compromise wherein PGSS would not collect the fee until May 18, when the results of a special referendum moving to permanently suspend the meal fee are announced. 

“Because there was a reorganization planned for that service, for the provision of meals to be increased and continue to be provided, the SSMU at the time believed that there was no incentive to reach out to PGSS about it. It’s a change of the service, but it’s not a removal of it,” Taylor said. “So, [the PGSS] had a meeting with the [SSMU] executives, in which case they had a riveting discussion to say the very least. And there was certainly some interesting perspective shared by PGSS regarding Midnight Kitchen and the reorganization, so that has led to them wanting to remove the fee in general.”

Upon learning of PGSS’s final decision to suspend the fee, Taylor put forward a motion during the Jan. 15 Legislative Council meeting to restrict PGSS members’ access to the program and the SSMU food pantry. He stated that it is in the best interest of undergraduate students to stop subsidizing the cost of free lunches without a contribution from PGSS. The motion was passed unanimously. However, SSMU Vice-President (VP) External Seraphina Crema-Black later proposed an amendment to allow PGSS members to retain access to the food pantry until the referendum results are announced.  

Crema-Black explained the motivation behind this amendment at the Jan. 20 Board of Directors meeting, stating that discussions with PGSS Secretary-General Sheheryar Ahmed and SSMU’s in-house council led her to believe a compromise was reachable.

“I want to know whether that’s something that they would consider before we pull access, especially because it’s used disproportionately by PGSS members, and food insecurity is a very important issue,” Crema-Black said. “I think I will be doing right by the company in my capacity as VP External, knowing that we’ve been talking to PGSS.”

An email motion granted the amendment, allowing PGSS members to continue accessing the food pantry for the remainder of the Winter 2026 semester. 

Students are now mandated to provide McGill identification proving that they are undergraduates before accessing the Free Lunches Program. If the motion to annul the fee fails, postgraduate students will again have access to these services but will have to pay an $8 CAD per-semester fee in order to match the contributions made by SSMU members. 

Taylor told The Tribune that removing PGSS access to the daily free lunches is the required course of action until the referendum, as the program will have less funding due to the executives’ decision to suspend their fee. Without funding from PGSS, the program cannot serve as many students as it does currently.

“[The PGSS executives] believe that it is better that no fee should exist and that their students should not have access to a meal service that’s recurring every day of the week, […] especially because the PGSS has no plans to institute any food accessible initiatives of their own at the present time,” Taylor said. “And now it’s up to their members to decide what is better, what is worse.”