Food Insecurity on College Campuses

We have all heard the college student stereotypes of surviving solely off instant noodles and as the cost of tuition keeps rising, it increasingly becomes harder for students to stay afloat. A fall 2019 survey of nearly 167,000 students nationwide found that 39% of students at two-or four-year schools had experienced food insecurity in the last 30 days. In 2020 another fall survey of 1,000 undergraduates found that 52% of students sometimes used off-campus food banks, while 30% used them monthly or more frequently. Consequently, 35% of students said their hunger impacted their ability to study at some point.

The same survey conducted jointly with Chegg, Swipe Out Hunger and the Born This Way Foundation also found that more than one-third of students knew someone who had dropped out of school due to difficulties affording food. I personally know many people whose parents don't help them whatsoever and are responsible for paying their college education, rent and other bills all on their own with a very low paying part time job. I would not be surprised that these people put their own health on the line to just make it through college.

Many schools such as Slippery Rock University have established food pantries to help combat this growing problem. SRU established their first food pantry in 2018 after a survey conducted by SGA reported that nearly 40 percent of SRU students have experience either not knowing when they will have access to food or are aware of fellow students who have been insecure about accessing food. Consequently, I will be interviewing someone from SGA about the food pantry to hear about the impact it has made for SRU students.

https://www.forbes.com/advisor/personal-finance/college-students-food-insecurity/