Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Log In
Store
Subscribe Today
STUDENTS
Comment (0)
How Many College Students Are Going Hungry? - The Chronicle of Higher Education
Students at Western Oregon U. can shop free at a student-run food pantry stocked with donated groceries and unused
provisions from dining halls. Christie Colasurdo, student coordinator of the pantry, surveys the inventory.
Toni Airaksinen knows that hunger can hide beneath a veneer of achievement. She worked her way to
Barnard College while growing up on food stamps.
So when she arrived at Barnard, the womens college affiliated with Columbia University, Ms.
Airaksinen suspected that some students would be waging similar battles in the shadows of the elite
universitys Manhattan campus.
"Whether youre at Columbia or youre at a community college, there will always be people struggling to
make ends meet," says Ms. Airaksinen. And when money gets tight, food is often first expense to go.
The sophomore was nevertheless struck by stories her classmates told: passing out in academic buildings
after skipping meals; eating cereal three times a day; planning their schedules around when a local
grocery store sets out free cheese samples.
http://chronicle.com/...fIyYTgi0q0EFpU5mWLPpwF0LB1vmlJbjF4dWJzMDV5TG1VY29Xc1BTVWpkMHk5amZzRmdDbmNMaFFDamI4emJr[11/3/2015 8:36:27 AM]
How Many College Students Are Going Hungry? - The Chronicle of Higher Education
"They would say things like, Oh, Im going to the Republicans club meeting," says Ms. Airaksinen. "I
would say, Wow, I didnt know you were a Republican. And theyd say, Im not, they have free food
there."
Colleges, including wealthy ones like
there struggled with food insecurity, a term that refers to people who skip meals or dont get proper
nutrition because they cant afford it. A new study, focusing on first-year students at Arizona State
University, put the rate around 34 percent.
Studies on other campuses have yielded a range of figures, from 14 percent at the University of Alabama
to 59 percent at Western Oregon University.
Meg Bruening, an assistant professor of nutrition at Arizona State, attributes the variation to differences
in the sample populations. "I dont think we really have a good understanding of how big the problem
is," she says. In nearly every case, however, the rate of food insecurity among students was much higher
than the rates for the general population.
How Many College Students Are Going Hungry? - The Chronicle of Higher Education
suffer from anxiety and depression. Other studies have tied food insecurity to low-income households and
unstable housing situations.
Like homelessness or mental-health issues, food insecurity is not always easy to notice from the outside.
When researchers at the City University of New York surveyed more than a thousand undergraduates on
17 of its campuses in 2010, 19 percent said they knew somebody at the university who had food or
hunger problems. In fact, nearly 40 percent of students were food-insecure at some level.
One reason is that students tend not to talk about it. "At the end of the day there is stigma, there is
shame, even in the low-income, first-generation community," says Ms. Airaksinen. Asking for help can
be embarrassing.
Debbie Diehm, an assistant to the vice president for student affairs at Western Oregon, remembers years
ago when a worried faculty member sent her a student who evidently had been missing meals. Ms. Diehm
offered to help the student apply for a grant from the universitys student emergency fund. But the
application form, which required only a name and a short explanation for the request, struck him as
daunting.
"He said, I just cant do that," recalls Ms. Diehm. "Filling out a one-page application for foundation
dollars was too much for that person to do, no matter what encouragement I gave."
Western Oregons student-affairs office has since started giving out gift cards for local grocery stores,
worth up to $100, to students who seek help buying food. At CUNY, where only 6 percent of
undergraduates reported using food stamps despite the high rate of food insecurity, officials on several
campuses have offered to help students navigate the sometimes complicated process of figuring out if
they are eligible for public assistance.
Student-Led Interventions
Many interventions have been led by students. At Western Oregon and elsewhere, students run campus
food pantries, stocked with donated groceries and unused food from the dining halls, where their
classmates can shop free. Campus food banks are proliferating; the College and University Food Bank
Alliance now counts more than 200 members. Often the banks are started by students, although college
officials have become increasingly interested in running them, according to Clare Cady, director of the
alliance.
How Many College Students Are Going Hungry? - The Chronicle of Higher Education
At Columbia students are using technology to fight the problem. Last spring undergraduates in a campus
group dedicated to the needs of first-generation and low-income students created a Facebook page called
"CU Meal Share," where Columbia students could volunteer to swipe their classmates into dining halls.
("I can swipe people into Ferris tonight at 6:30!" wrote one student in late October, referring to a campus
eatery.) This fall a pair of undergraduates unveiled a mobile app that matches hungry students with
nearby meal donors.
The college, in a bid to encourage this kind of
student-to-student charity while also ensuring
privacy, has created a kind of virtual food bank,
the "emergency meal fund," stocked with
donated meal points. Rather than asking a
classmate for a swipe, students now can request
six free meals per semester from the fund
through a dining-hall official, no questions
asked.
Occasional free meals can help, says Ms.
How Many College Students Are Going Hungry? - The Chronicle of Higher Education
Show Comments
How Many College Students Are Going Hungry? - The Chronicle of Higher Education
Sign Up Now
TRENDING NOW
How Many College Students Are Going Hungry? - The Chronicle of Higher Education
ADVICE
How Many College Students Are Going Hungry? - The Chronicle of Higher Education
LATEST IN STUDENTS
One State's Big Shift Away From Remedial Courses Leaves Questions for Colleges
Everywhere
What Colleges Need to Know About Lead Generation
At Public Universities, Muslim Students Search for a Place to Pray
Jobs onVitae
Search by Keyword
All
AllTypes
Types
Search
Search
Top Jobs
Post a Job
Subscribe Today
How Many College Students Are Going Hungry? - The Chronicle of Higher Education
Twitter
Facebook
Log In
Get Newsletters
Events
Help
Site Map
Privacy Policy
User Agreement