SPECIAL FEATURES:
Email
Food insecurity on college campus
We're not talking about teens with the munchies: More college students are making the choice between paying for tuition and paying for food.
Tue, May 11 2010 at 11:06 AM
Related Topics:
Photo: quinn.anya/Flickr
A recent article over at The Atlantic really hit home with me. It tackles the subject of food insecurity on college campuses. I was reminded of the weekends in my own college dorm when I had no food. I put myself through college and could only afford the five-day meal plan, not the seven-day meal plan. The cafeteria did not allow students to take food out of the cafeteria. Sometimes, I would sneak out a piece of fruit, but for the most part once I left the cafeteria, I was on my own for food.
I remember going to the store on weekends and purchasing a 99-cent extra-large bottle of generic soda and then going next door to the Chinese restaurant and buying a large fried rice (with no meat) and making them last for an entire weekend. I remember sneaking a piece of bread and peanut butter from one of my roommates' stashes. She had no more money or access to food than I did.
I was never really in danger of starving. I lived less from an hour from home, and I could have used the emergency gas credit card that my father had given me to buy gas and drive home. My parents would have willingly filled a couple of bags full of groceries from their cupboards for me and sent me on my way. But I was trying to prove my independence, and I chose to be hungry a lot instead of letting my parents know I didn't have enough food. I'm not even sure they knew I didn't have a seven-day plan.
Flash forward from my college days to today, and there are lots of college students experiencing a more serious lack of food than I did. As college tuition rises sharply and middle-class families are feeling the effects of a poor economy, many students have no money for food after they pay for tuition and books. These students don't have the option I had of using an emergency credit card and going home to raid Mom and Dad's kitchen.
According to The Atlantic, even students at prestigious schools like UCLA are going hungry. Senior engineering major Aballah Jadallah noticed that many of his classmates were hungry.
Many of his classmates were struggling to feed themselves, trying to get by on one meal a day — cheap but filling Taco Bell bean burritos are a particularly popular choice for the day's nourishment. He also noticed that many of the school's campus organizations regularly offered refreshments at their meetings and events, the leftovers from which were then thrown away. He found the discrepancy disturbing, so he went to the university's community programs office and requested a space to set aside leftovers for hungry students. The UCLA Food Closet was born.
Students can visit the Food Closet and get grab-and-go food that can easily be concealed in their backpacks to take to a microwave elsewhere in the building to heat up. You may be wondering why the food needs to be easily concealed. It's so students aren't embarrassed. I get that. I didn't even want my roommate to know I couldn't afford food, so I took her bread and peanut butter without asking.
At San Diego City College, a different program has been started. Once a week, students can get a bag lunch that contains some "sort of protein, fruit, a bottle of water, and a couple of snacks." It's not much, but it's better than nothing.
We're not talking about students who get back from a night of drinking and don't happen to have a stash of Cheetos to satisfy their munchies in their dorm room. We're talking about students going hungry during the school day so they can get the education needed to better their lives and their families' lives.
In North Carolina at Guilford Technical Community College, students can visit a small, but full-blown food pantry and get an entire week's worth of groceries. This service could mean the difference between a parent choosing between getting the education needed to get a better job or dropping out of school to get any job available to feed the family. The food pantry is invaluable.
If you have a heart for college students, what can you do about this situation? I have a couple of ideas.
- Send care packages to students you know who live on campus — peanut butter, pasta, sauce, rice, granola and nuts are all good, filling, non-perishable choices.
- Call your local college or your alma mater and ask if there is any sort of program for students in immediate need of food. If there is, donate money or food to the program.
- If you're a college student on a campus and you aren't feeling the effects of food insecurity, find out if your institution has one of these programs. If they do, volunteer to help out. If they don't, see if you can be instrumental in starting one.
The opinions expressed by MNN Bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of MNN.com. While we have reviewed their content to make sure it complies with our Terms and Conditions, MNN is not responsible for the accuracy of any of their information.
You might also like:
Sign in with one of these accounts to add your comment.
EDITORS' PICKS
Advertisement
TODAY'S MOST POPULAR ON
- Mystery cause of Irish potato famine finally solved
- Tornado survivor finds dog during live TV interview
- Superfoods: 11 berries to improve your health
- Why we turn to dogs when disaster strikes
- 5 of the best-looking cars ever
- Rebounding from adversity: 7 cities that have survived tragedy
- 15 famous people who mysteriously disappeared
- 10 false facts most people think are true
- Is that snake venomous?
- Bride finds self-esteem by taking a diet from her mirror
From our sponsor
NEWSLETTER
ABOUT Robin Shreeves
Stay-at-home mom on eco-friendly food options.
Advertisement
I posted before... I forgot to add... become an RA! They get free room and board.
10 pack ramen - $1
box of pasta - $1
canned veggies - 3/$2
a dozen eggs $2.50
tuna - <$1
thats $6.50 for a weeks worth of food. and its relatively nutritious.... none of this becoming malnourished on white rice alone.
ok so its like $7ish dollars.... but still....thats a dollar a day!
let me tell you all the things you could have bought for .99 that would have been more than just something to "hold you over till dinner"
a box of pasta, a can of tuna, canned veggies, a box or bag store brand cereal, a lot of ramen, a bag of dried beans, some fresh produce, 3 cup-o-soups, a box of macaroni and cheese, a box of rice, those lipton/knorr side pastas or an assortment of other things, all of which could be an actual meal... not just an unhealthy snack.
sorry dude wonder where your shopping nothing you just said cost just .99
except the ramen you could buy almost two bags almost lol
Do you see the major problem with the US education system that is disgustingly overdue for a reform? I feel another bubble is about to burst within few years, next to the healthcare one. And some civil unrest to go along with it.
Learn to cook yourselves, its significantly cheaper and can be done in even the smallest dorm. Get an electric burner and a mini fridge and you'll be golden. Meal plans are overpriced and living off fast food is too when compared with simple home made options.
For example, when I was at U of Mississippi, there were no open heat sources of any kind allowed. No burners, no toasters or toaster ovens. We were allowed crock pots though, and I can tell you I got plenty of use out of mine!
Financial aid does not count as income for college students on food stamps.
College students are eligible for food stamps. Those who get work study or work 20 hours a week are eligible. Now that jobs are hard to get, the 20 hour work rule is suspended.
Unless your BMI (body mass index) is less than 20, you are not really starving. I understand things are tough, but it is hard to feel sorry for a well-fed (as defined by body weight - and what other definition could there possibly be?!?) person complaingin about starving...
that`s quite a cynical answer you just sputtered out why are you even replying
to these posts people generally don't need others to be food Nazis and understand
there dietary needs these people are genuinely looking for answers not negativity
I hope to God you're joking and you don't really believe that body mass is a measure of adequate food intake.
I nearly died from an eating disorder years ago, when my organs started to fail because of lack of nutrition over the course of several years, and I weighed ~ 250 lbs at the time. Body weight is in NO WAY a measure of whether or not a person is getting enough food to keep themselves healthy or mentally capable of work.
There is no place for college graduates in the new economy. Unless you have an MBA, your under 30, outstanding credit, your are good looking, not so much as a parking ticket on your criminal record, you are the president of your fraternity, ect. ect. When I went back to school and finished in a few years ago with degrees in several fields, I made myself unemployable. I can not get a McJob because of my education. If were not for the food bank, I would be starving.
Welcome to college. College is about sacrifice for your future and I’ll tell you what as a former Masters and now as a PhD candidate it only gets tougher. Quit complaining, no one needs 3 meals a day and ultimately its mind over matter. Control your hunger with rice, Top-A-Romani, and canned foods
The author says she paid .99 for a soda. Has she ever heard of water? For what she paid for the rice at the Chinese store she could probably get several pounds dry at the grocery store. But god forbid any of these lazy slackers from so much as lifting a finger to actually prepare their own food. Sorry; when you pay a dollar for a soft drink and then complain about "starving" you just lost all credibility.
I am a college senior and I know what this is like. Not to mention the fact that dining plans are $2,000 per semester, but the fact that I have to do a mandatory off-campus internship this year in order to graduate means that I have to have a car. Yet another expense.
Thank god canned peas and carrots are $0.39 each from my local grocery store. Sometimes that's all I eat in a day.
@Anonymous, as a college student I have to agree, these mandatory internships need to be abolished! If you speak to your advisor and financial aid they will help. My degree requires a field credit. The last field credit was a trip to China which costs $2200, plus tuition, fees and meals. What a deal!
I am a college senior and I know what this is like. Not to mention the fact that dining plans are $2,000 per semester, but the fact that I have to do a mandatory off-campus internship this year in order to graduate means that I have to have a car. Yet another expense.
Thank god canned peas and carrots are $0.39 each from my local grocery store. Sometimes that's all I eat in a day.
Pages