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As a first-generation college student attending Michigan State University in the ’80s, I easily qualified for a full Pell Grant and a full state scholarship. I also experienced food insecurity. From September through May, I lived on campus and ate in the cafeteria in Akers Hall. However, summer was a different story. That first summer after my freshman year, things were tough. My shelf in the shared refrigerator in our sublet apartment was usually empty, and I didn’t find a job until August. Luckily, two of my roommates worked at McDonald’s, and they had a kind manager who gave me burgers, fries and shakes at the end of the day.
My story is not unique. A percentage of our college students has always faced food insecurity, and we have often looked the other way.
In July, the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report on food insecurity among college students, “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): Estimated Eligibility and Receipt Among Food Insecure College Students.” The report was requested by House Education and the Workforce ranking member Robert C. Scott of Virginia and House Agriculture Committee ranking member David Scott of Georgia after Congress temporarily expanded college students’ eligibility for food assistance in 2021 in response to increased food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some quick facts from the GAO Report:
- About 3.8 million or 23 percent of college students experienced food insecurity in 2020.
- Fifty-nine percent of food-insecure students who were potentially eligible for SNAP didn’t report receiving benefits.
First, let’s take that in. That’s a lot of college students, nearly one in four of the students at our colleges and universities. In addition, close to 80 percent of food-insecure college students are “nontraditional,” which means that they are financially independent from parents/guardians, did not immediately enroll in college after high school, and/or they care for a dependent.
It follows that our more vulnerable students are more likely to be food insecure. Most of our institutions were not created to serve nontraditional students. Given the origins and histories of our institutions, it should also not come as a surprise that food insecurity rates are higher at minority-serving institutions (MSIs). So, what does that look like at our institutions? The greater the percentage of students from more historically marginalized and underserved populations on our campuses, the higher likelihood that more than one in four students is experiencing food insecurity. According to survey data from the Hope Center at Temple University, 39 percent of students at two-year institutions are impacted by food insecurity.
Full-time college students are often excluded from SNAP benefits unless they qualify for an exemption. Some of these exemptions include working 20 hours or more per week, caring for a dependent child and/or having a disability. But even those who are eligible often don’t apply for and receive the benefits. Of those 3.3 million potentially eligible students, 2.2 million (67 percent) reported that their household did not receive any SNAP benefits. The reasons for this lack of uptake range from stigma and shame to overly complicated application procedures.
The short-term solutions proposed by advocates include having states and institutions use Free Application for Federal Student Aid data to identify eligible students and do ongoing and coordinated outreach to get them enrolled. The current SNAP student requirements are an administrative burden that often prevents students from being able to understand the program and complete required paperwork. Recommendations include streamlining the overly complicated exemptions that do little to aid students experiencing food insecurity. Students who qualify for Pell Grants, independent students and parenting students clearly qualify if they meet the regular SNAP eligibility criteria and should be automatically enrolled.
The longer-term solutions—proposed by the Hope Center and others—include reframing long-held views of college students. The average college student is not from a wealthy and privileged background and supported by their parents. When close to one in four college students experiences food insecurity in a given year, it is clear that we need to better understand the circumstances of our college students. Fewer than half of the students experiencing food insecurity meet the criteria to be eligible for SNAP.
The 20-hour-a-week work requirement is perhaps the most counterintuitive. This goes directly against well-known best practices in supporting academic student success. In fact, student employees are limited to working a maximum of 20 hours a week on campus for this very reason: They are students first and foremost. For one set of students, 20 hours is a maximum, and for another set of students, 20 hours is a minimum.
Advocates have fought for a reframe. Those of us who work in higher ed know that being a student is work. College professors assign work in our classes. We need to consistently view the work that students do when taking college courses as work, as a benefit not only for the individual but for society. We need to invest not only in the future of our workforce but also in the future of a more educated society. We can begin that investment by prioritizing the basic human need of food security.
Further Reading
