While the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified food insecurity for K-12 students, more attention must be paid to the same issue for college students.
When the pandemic brought about widespread campus closures in March 2020, a certain portion of students who lived on campus had insufficient funds to travel home, or no home to travel to. College administrators quickly had to identify solutions to take care of this vulnerable student population, especially on campuses without food pantries. This issue must be resolved going forward if we are to close the pervasive equity gaps in America’s higher education system.
The psychologist Abraham Maslow is well known for expressing the importance of meeting basic human needs for shelter, security and food before going on to attain higher goals. Before we can expect students to excel on college campuses, we must guarantee every student has their basic needs met while in college so they can learn to the best of their ability.
Research from The Hunt Institute confirms the grim realities of food insecurity for our students. Food insecure students are 12% less likely to receive top grades, and one in four drop a class. Students who are food insecure are likely to be America’s most vulnerable students, including low-income students, parents, LGBTQ+ students, students of color, and first-generation college students.
College administrators must invest in programs to prevent food insecurity for all of their students, and thankfully there is no need to reinvent the wheel. There are already several examples of effective solutions on campuses around the country:
? Partner with local food pantries. The Community Feed at Tidewater Community College is a new partnership with the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore for individuals to access healthy food and resources aimed at holistically addressing root causes of food insecurity.
? Offer free meal destinations on campus. The University of California at Santa Cruz runs an on-campus cafe funded from donations and the University of California system, and serves drinks, snacks and prepared meals free of charge to any student.
? Educate students on their ability to receive SNAP benefits and accept them on campus. Fewer than 50% of students who are eligible for SNAP benefits currently receive them. Ohio University is one example of a campus providing a retailer that accepts SNAP benefits.
? Allow the student population to get involved. Swipe Out Hunger has partnered with schools in North Carolina to allow students to donate their additional meal tickets to students on campus who need them.
? Collaborate with other universities. Again in North Carolina, the Campus Pantry Collaborative is a partnership of nearby campus food pantries sharing best practices in their bid to eliminate food insecurity.
? Pass legislation. New Jersey passed legislation to address food insecurity in 2019 which established the Hunger-Free Campus Act grant program and promoted emergency food services.
These are the types of common-sense solutions that states should look toward to make real progress on this issue.
Virginia proved that we can move the needle on food access by bringing partners to the table and delivering resources where they are most needed. Virginia achieved unprecedented success in the fight against childhood hunger, growing summer meal programs, after-school meal programs, and school breakfast programs by a collective total of at least 13 million meals and snacks per year in 2017. That model can achieve similarly dramatic improvements at the college level.
Without addressing food insecurity and meeting students’ basic needs, America’s higher education system will always disadvantage students without privilege, and higher education will remain an unrealistic dream for our most vulnerable students. Blueprints exist for how to solve this problem. It needs to be done now.
Dr. Javaid Siddiqi is president and CEO of The Hunt Institute in Cary, North Carolina. Dorothy McAuliffe is chair of No Kid Hungry Virginia.
