Hundreds of students were able to pay off their parking tickets by donating canned food through the UF Food for Fines program.
The program, lasting Oct. 21 through Oct. 25, brought in 3,415 canned food items and forgave 683 citations, totaling about $22,755, according to UF Business Affairs Director of Communications Amy Armstrong. Students who received parking tickets said they saved money by donating food items instead of paying off the parking ticket.
UF Parking fines range from $10 to at least $200, according to university policy.
Tickets didn’t qualify for the Food for Fines program if they were more than six months old, were issued the week the program was active or were worth more than $35, according to the TAPS website.
Ylice Benlizar, a 21-year-old UF anthropology senior on the pre-med track, heard about the program from UF Student Government’s Instagram. She used it to dismiss a $35 citation by donating five canned foods.
“I was really excited to participate in it, because I get a lot of tickets,” she said. “I was very happy to give back to the community but also benefit from it.”
Benlizar said she received her ticket after parking in an Orange parking garage near Broward, which is reserved for faculty and employees. She has a Red 1 parking permit, which only allows her to park in areas marked as Red by the university.
A permit is required for most parking areas from Monday to Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., according to the Transportation and Parking Services website.
“I parked there at about 2:30 p.m.,” Benlizar said. “I was like, 'Oh, it's late enough that I'll get away with it,’ and I did not get away with it.”
She said she would prefer if the Food for Fines program started later in the semester to give more people time to get tickets. The program should happen every semester, she added.
Will MacDonald, the senior director of Transportation and Parking Services, said the program will return for the Spring 2025 semester. He didn’t specify an exact start date.
“We enjoyed this partnership with Student Government and are proud of this initiative's contributions to the Hitchcock Field & Fork Pantry,” he said.
Similar to Benlizar, Katie Crepage, an 18-year-old UF data science freshman, said she parked in the Orange parking lot near Reid Hall while having a Red permit and received a ticket.
She said she used the program to pay off her $35 citation. Her friend also tried to pay off a parking ticket but couldn’t because the ticket was given the Monday the program started.
“I wish they would have said something publicly about that,” Crepage said. “[My friend] went, got the cans, went all the way there, and then they didn't let her donate.”
Michael Plasencia, a 21-year-old UF business administration junior, said he encountered the same issue when he tried to forgive one of his tickets. But he successfully used the program to forgive two other $35 tickets by donating 10 cans that in total cost $10.
“These cans went to a good purpose,” Plasencia said. “It saved me 60 bucks. I was super happy about that.”
He said both tickets stemmed from parking his moped in Fraternity Row and Southwest Recreation Center’s scooter parking lots while not having a scooter permit.
Plasencia said he didn’t have a permit because he thought it cost $50 per month, which he believed would be more expensive than paying for the citations. He said he plans on buying the permit after learning the permit actually costs $35 per month.
Joseph Cuenco, a 21-year-old UF computer science senior, said he was able to pay off his $35 ticket even though he received it while Food for Fines was active. He said someone, who he assumed to be a TAPS employee, allowed him to forgive the ticket.
Cuenco said he received his parking citation for parking his moped in Southwest’s scooter parking lot while having an expired scooter permit.
“It's pretty rare that they check,” he said. “I just got unlucky.”
He said he didn’t buy the permit this semester partly because he thought it was cheaper to pay the citations than buy the permit, similar to Plasencia.
UF has so far generated almost $2 million in revenue from parking fines this year, according to UF Communications Director Amy Armstrong.
“I think they just need to advertise [Food for Fines] to students more because I had no idea it was going on,” Cuenco said. “I think if it's something that happens regularly and a lot of students know about it, [then] it will be a really good program for UF.”
UF SG Senator Noor Golesorkhi (Vision-Freshman), who worked to bring the program to UF, said she is “beyond grateful” for the collaboration with TAPS to bring the program to fruition.
“I am very proud that we were able to bring back the Food for Fines initiative,” she said. “I am looking forward to the [program’s] future.”
Contact Timothy Wang at twang@alligator.org. Follow him on X @timothyw_g.
Timothy Wang is a junior journalism student and the Fall 2024 Santa Fe College Reporter. He was the University Administration reporter for Summer 2024. His hobbies include gaming or reading manga.
