When we heard about the work that several departments and students are doing to address food insecurity in the UVM community, our hearts swelled.

Their work, which is rooted in action, is more meaningful than that of sofa protesters upset with the political climate.

If the special brand of activists on campus who buy sustainability stickers and repost NowThis News videos on Facebook cut down on screen time and volunteered, we’d be living in a beautiful place.

The committee working to address food insecurity remembers what many of have forgotten: you must be active to be an activist.

It’s a fact of life that people have a finite amount of time and energy: a limited pool of hours, calories and thoughts we pull from each day.

At college, students spend time striving to learn, love and make meaningful change in the world.

But nearly all of us could do the last part better. We waste too much time focused on the destruction of evil: calling out the government, standing on soap boxes, blowing hot air.

When we’re sharing Facebook articles and protesting government policies, we could also be putting our energy toward the creation of good.

Senior SGA senator Bhumika Patel and other students are working to identify and aid students who are struggling to feed themselves off campus.

If there’s a pendulum between speaking out about what disgusts us and taking action to improve issues locally, most students have swayed too far toward the former.

The food insecurity committee is swaying in the right direction.

Use this initiative as a model: see a global issue and look locally to see how you can help.

Standing for the issues you care about doesn’t mean carving out more time in your schedule.

It simply means rethinking how you use your time and energy.