Millions of College Students are Going Hungry

Tue, 15 Jan 2019 09:41:00 -0500

Retriever Essentials believes that often, the food insecurity UMBC students experience is the tip of the iceberg-- if the first sacrifice is textbooks before food, imagine the tough choices that could follow. An article published in The Atlantic last week by Adam Harris details the new findings by the Government Accountability Office (GAO- a nonpartisan congressional watchdog), and congressional stakeholder's reactions and plans for advocacy for our vulnerable students. Find some excerpts below:

GAO found that there are nearly 1 million college students at risk of becoming food insecure, marking the first time the federal government has acknowledged food insecurity on campus in a significant way.

The federal government spends billions of dollars on higher education each year, and this report finds that some students are at risk of dropping out because they cannot eat.

“[The report] put it very clearly for us that we can see that especially first-time students, first-generation students, students who are raising children, single parents, face increasing obstacles to be able to complete that critical college degree,” Senator Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate’s education committee says.

Middle-class students, those who are “too rich for Pell and too poor to afford college,” struggle as well. And they may not be as likely to use things such as the food pantry.

Murray says that addressing food insecurity is one of her top priorities as Congress negotiates a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, the major federal law governing colleges and universities. “Often, we just talk about the tuition costs and dealing with that,” she says. “It has to be broader than that— [it has to be] all of the costs that come to a student as they try to complete college, including food and housing.”

Sara Goldrick-Rab, a higher-education professor at Temple University and a leading scholar on campus hunger, put it more bluntly. The report shows “that food insecurity is a college-completion issue,” she says. “We’re undermining our federal investment in financial aid by not paying attention to this. We have to stop pretending like living expenses are not educational expenses.”

Keep an eye out in the next few weeks for how you can help support Retriever Essentials as we begin taking steps toward institutionalization and securing sustainable support for our students years to come.