Hunger can distract students from focusing, leading to decreased academic performance, longer time than usual to graduate, and higher rates of depression.
[4] Furthermore, familial financial hardship, ever-rising costs of tuition and housing, and lack of sufficient financial aid –which can be attributed to recent major cuts in states’ budgets for public universities and lack of federal aid –have made food insecurity an increasingly common experience among college students.
[5][1] In fact, a study on hunger in US colleges done at the University of California took data from 2006 to 2016 showed that 40% of students experienced food insecurity.
[6] A study done by researcher Danielle Gallegods used the USDA Food Security Module (FFSM) on 810 students at the Metropolitan University in Brisbane, Australia.
Students from food- insecure households were twice as likely to rate their overall health as fair or poor and three times as likely to have to postpone their studies due to financial constraints.
[7] According to a study done by researcher Jaapna Dhillion, L. Katrina Diaz Rosa, Kaitlyn J. Aldaz, and their peers at the University of California, student’s perceptions of available food in the area caused them to have a higher risk of malnutrition and bad eating habits.
Many of the students in community colleges that are food insecure have experienced racial inequality, lack of healthcare and social services, inadequate housing poverty and other economic barriers.
[10] where as in a correlational study conducted at the University of Hawaii at Manoa found that 21-24% of their undergraduate students were food-insecure or at risk of food insecurity.
[11] Data from a large southwestern university show that 32% of college freshmen, who lived in residence halls, self-reported inconsistent access to food in the past month.
[13] A study done by professor of Public Health and author Nicholas Freudenberg examines the demographics of students who may be more likely to be affected by food insecurity.
A study conducted by researchers Jaapna Dhillion, L. Katrina Diaz Rios, Kaitlyn J. Aldaz, and their peers, looked into the perception of first-year minority students attending a school in a food desert at the University of California.
They found that students expressed they had trouble with the adequacy, meaning variety and quality, acceptability with their familiarity and preferences, affordability and accessibility.
[8] Another study was conducted at the University of Alabama by sociologist and author Katharine Broton discusses full time returning students and their food security.
[18] When there isn’t enough food in the body for an extended period amount of time, the student would become fatigued and could experience anxiety, interfering with their concentration in class.
But these meals would probably be highly processed foods which would not only make them physically sick after being consumed for a prolonged amount of time but affect them mentally too.
[21] This could be because the student who has the average lower GPA must spend money on other items or rent instead of buying food and it affects them mentally and physically.
This is because when SNAP was first introduced, college students were not the main focus of the program as they were typically from white, middle-class families, under the care of their parents and were young high school graduates without dependents to provide for.
[27] A study conducted by researcher Quin Moore at Pacific University discovered that overall, the students who utilized SNAP’s benefits noticed improvements in their diets.
[28] Researchers have suggested that college campuses examine available and accessible food-related resources to help alleviate students’ food insecurity.
The relief that the food pantry offers helps many people make it from one paycheck to another when their funds aren’t enough to cover the board of their needs.
[1] Community based assistance programs, like food pantries, can cater to a large number of students with minimal effort.
With the ability to be operated by a group of students, faculty, and staff volunteers, they can obtain materials and aid from a multitude of organizations in the community and within the school.
[35] A study done by anthropologist Nicole D Peterson at the University of North Carolina looked into the barriers of food security on college campuses.
[36] Community and college-based farming initiatives work to link universities with nearby agricultural production and enhancing meal quality and nutrition.