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Food Pantries Ease Food Insecurity on College Campuses

Between managing the cost of student loans, stagnant wages, and inflation, many students are struggling to afford to pay for basic essentials, such as food. According to a Hope Center survey at Temple University in 2020, out of 195,000 students at four-year colleges, nearly 30% reported experiencing food insecurity. For students at two-year colleges, that number is nearly 40%. With the end of the public health emergency in May, eligibility requirements for federally funded hunger relief programs have changed. Now, students who relied on federal funds for the last three years have to find a new way to get food. To help ease the burden, some colleges and universities have used donations, grant money, and student funds to build food pantries on campus.

Changes in College Population Demographics

Recent estimates reveal that around 73% of college students are non-traditional, meaning that they are financially independent, work full-time while going to school, are caretakers for their dependents, and may not have received a traditional high school diploma. The average age of a newly enrolled college student is 21, while the overall average age is around 26. Nearly 22% of college students are caring for child dependents, with 14% doing so as single parents. According to a 2019 Pew Research study, the average rate of undergraduate students from families in poverty was around 20%, a 50% increase from the past two decades. For students who attend classes while also working part-time or full-time to support their families, finding time to go to the grocery store off-campus may not be a viable option.

Changes in Federal Funding Eligibility

When trying to access the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), a federally funded hunger relief program providing monthly allowances for groceries, students today are facing an uphill battle. Since the 80s, people who attend school on more than a part-time basis have largely been excluded from Snap due to concern that students from financially stable backgrounds would draw from public resources instead of relying on funds from their families.

When trying to access Snap, students today are facing an uphill battle.

Instead of qualifying for Snap based on asset and income requirements, as many Americans do, college students also need to work 20 hours a week, a requirement that many non-traditional students may argue is unreasonable when they are attending classes and doing schoolwork every day. During the pandemic, the 20-hour work requirement for students was lifted, but after the public health emergency declaration ended in May, this requirement will be re-enforced, meaning that around 3 million students who benefitted from the exemption who would not have otherwise been eligible, no longer have grocery money they have depended on for the last three years.

Expensive Meal Plans

According to 2022 estimates, the average meal plan costs around $4,500 per year ($18.75 per day). Some of the more expensive meal plans are around $9,000 per year. Texas State, a university on the lower end of the spectrum, offered meal plans during the 2021-2022 school year starting at $1,355 and increasing up to $2,145 per semester, depending on the plan. Syracuse University in New York offers meal plans almost twice as high, with their unlimited plan ranging between $4,135 and $4,335 per semester, according to their website. Some universities require residential students to purchase on-campus meal plans, causing a setback in some students’ budgets. It can also be difficult for some students to decide which meal plan is best for them, often leading to students wasting meals at the end of the year.

On-Campus Food Pantries Offer a Solution

There have been little, if any, changes to the eligibility requirements of federally funded food relief programs in recent years, despite the quickly changing demographics of college student populations. With no light shining at the end of the tunnel, nearly 800 colleges and universities across the U.S. have begun taking action by building food pantries on-campus. These pantries are funded by grants, private donations, and student funds and usually include food donated from local food banks or grocery stores. Students can come in any day of the week during school hours and grab a snack, secure fully prepared meal kits, or even collect essential food items they can use later in the week, all at no cost to them. Some colleges’ food pantries offer extended hours for students who just broke their Ramadan fast.

Food pantries, funded by grants, private donations, and student fees, usually provide free food, drinks, and meals to students who need them.

While some colleges in Arkansas, including U of A, A-State, NWACC, Pulaski Tech, SEARK, UALR, and UCA, have already implemented food pantries, they each are run differently. Some of them even offer food delivery services from these food pantries for students who live off campus. It is essential that their funding sources remain in place so that food pantries can stay open and students can come get free meals whenever they need them. Additional funding could come from off-campus sponsors, including local food banks. It may even benefit students to have the food bank open on holidays. Perhaps there could even be a mobile bank that goes to a popular area of town and gives out smaller food items on days when the campus is closed.

It is essential that funding sources remain in place so that the food pantries can stay open and students can come get free meals whenever they need them.

Despite there being 800 on-campus food pantries across the U.S., there are still colleges and universities that have not yet implemented a food relief program for a variety of reasons. Non-traditional students are still missing out on meals due to other college expenses. Smaller community colleges and 2-year colleges may have a greater need for these services but need to know how to get started. The College and University Food Bank Alliance has created a toolkit designed to help colleges implement a food pantry service from start to finish. This detailed toolkit provides step-by-step processes for starting the discussion in student government meetings, discussing the need for a pantry with university leaders and fundraisers, and setting up rules and regulations for running the pantry. This toolkit even provides food pantry needs surveys for students, faculty, and staff, a sample student government resolution, and an FAQ page providing sample questions and answers for conversations with administrators. This guide is free online and is a great resource for colleges and universities that may not know how to get started.

All-in-all, college students need greater access to a basic need many of us take for granted: a fresh meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Whether the federal government elects to ease Snap restrictions, colleges lower the costs of meal plans, or universities begin laying the groundwork for building a food pantry on campus, there are solutions to take one concern off students’ plates. With college student demographics changing and the nation just beginning to adjust to the public health emergency declaration expiring, it is time to re-evaluate ways to make it easier for humans to meet their needs.

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