BATTLING HUNGER IN CAMPUSES 4
Running head: BATTLING HUNGER IN CAMPUSES 1
Battling Hunger in Campuses
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Abstract
Food insecurity refers to the lack of access to food in the right quantity, quality, and affordability. The quality of the food implies that the food lacks nutritional value and cannot build the body of the feeder. Commonly, students in colleges and universities are the biggest victims of food insecurity in the U.S. owing to many reasons. Firstly, besides paying for college fee, the student needs to pay for food daily as well as the home where he or she resides. Moreover, most of the students on campus are nontraditional. A nontraditional student is one who commits part of the time to studies, has full-time employment, is financially independent, must support his or her family financially, is a single parent, or lacks a high school diploma. Due inability to clear all the costs, that is, the college fee, food expenses, and rent, the students may decide to have an imbalanced diet or have none at all. Similarly, they may lack the funds to pay the rents. For this reason, it is common for college students to be food insecure and homeless.
Battling Hunger in Campuses
Introduction
Universities or colleges may overlook food insecurity as one of the major deterrents to the students’ academic success. While researchers are considering hunger as a dominant problem at state universities or two-year colleges, school surveys now suggest that nearly twenty to thirty-three percent of scholars at four-year colleges undergo food insecurity. Hunger in campuses significantly affects the educational attainment of students, making them to produce low grades. Reportedly, 12.3% of households in the U.S. experience food insecurity and this fully reflects on the campus students. Thus, food insecurity refers to a social and economic condition in the household level that deprives people of access to adequate food. Several researchers have looked at various hunger-related programs in universities or colleges, hence providing information that is helpful in this matter. However, some of the programs, including university and college food bank alliance have not been presented extensively in class. Therefore, this report seeks to describe the program by providing adequate details to analyze and assess it. Similarly, through the program, the report could introduce new and creative ways of handling the challenges of food insecurity on students at Portland State University.
Food Bank Alliances
According to the department of agriculture in the U.S., food insecurity is a condition whereby an individual is incapable of accessing adequate resources to feed him or herself fully or nutritiously (Payne-Sturges et al., 2018). Food insecurity is abundantly prevalent in college campuses and profoundly threatens the success of students. College and University Food Bank Alliance is a project that surrounds college students and their encounter with food insecurity. Based on various survey results, approximately twenty to forty percent of students in different colleges and universities in the United States have encountered severe food insecurity. In turn, this has declined the academic performance of many students in recent years. Precisely, some of the challenges that food insecurity portrays negatively affect the learning outcomes, retention, and the time a student takes to obtain a degree (James, Brandon, & Clare, 2016). Hence, by entirely describing this project and pointing out the details, it will be easier to give food insecurity immediate attention and face the challenges that it lays on campus students confidently.
The College and University Food Bank Alliance responds to the rising food insecurity in campuses by monitoring the students in various schools, identifying the hunger-related problems, and finding strategic solutions (Evans, 2016). The program serves the food-insecure students who often manage full-time jobs, receive no support from their families, or provide support for their own families. Moreover, members of the project assist traditional college students with financial struggles. The program ensures that students in colleges and universities remain in school to obtain their degrees. Also, it strives to support the existing and upcoming food banks on campuses. The food bank alliance ensures that the colleges have enough pantries to provide students with food (Payne-Sturges et al., 2018). Pantries avail a variety of foods from non-perishables to perishable like fresh vegetables and fruits. Though communities encourage the presence of pantries in campuses, sometimes they may not be sufficient to serve all the students, thus introducing deficiency as well as food insecurity that ultimately leads to hunger in colleges or universities. Besides, the students may experience personal obstacles that distract them from utilizing the food pantries properly. For instance, they may be in class when the pantries are open, they may lack the necessary transportation to get there or may be ineligible owing to their statuses as students.
Surveys also report that the number of food-insecure students is increasing with that of homeless students. In campus, the non-traditional students have many bills that they have to clear (Payne-Sturges et al., 2018). A nontraditional student is one who commits part of the time on college, has full-time employment, is financially independent, must support his or her family financially, is a single parent, or lacks a high school diploma. Besides paying for college fee, there is a need to pay for food daily as well as funding the landlords in the places where they reside. Due inability to pay for all these, the students may decide to clear the college fee and have an unbalanced diet or none at all. For this reason, it is common for college students to be food insecure and homeless.
Impacts of Food Banks on the Food-Insecure Students
With food banks in place, this may create a positive impact by tackling the challenges of food security to students James, Brandon, & Clare, 2016). As a result, the students would have adequate, affordable, and nutritious food, making them to be strong and healthy. Equally, they would no longer worry about having proper homes to stay during studies. Thus, the students would put more focus on their studies, making them to produce higher academic results. Some community colleges have handled the issue of hunger appropriately while others have left it for student groups to facilitate meal-share programs. The food banks can serve the food-insecure students sufficiently by helping them to battle not only hunger but also homelessness.
Food banks can serve the food-insecure students sufficiently by helping them to battle not only hunger but homelessness as well. For example, some colleges engage students who do not use up all their weekly credit in the meal accounts to give some of it to the unable students. Similarly, some colleges have introduced free foods in their institutions to ensure that no one goes hungry (Evans, 2016). Some higher-education institutions have also engaged an initiative to send free food to some homes on the weekends to feed the households of students who are financially struggling to meet both their needs and those of their children.
The Implementation of the Program at Portland State University
The food banks can be implemented at Portland State University to face the issue of food insecurity and hunger among students in the school. In full implementation of this initiative, the university could have several food pantries to ensure that students have adequate, affordable, and quality food to eat at any time when they are free or hungry (Payne-Sturges et al., 2018). Similarly, through the college and university food bank alliance, the members of this program can monitor the students to check if anyone is hungry or homeless. By doing this, the university will be in a better place as it will solve the issue of hunger and homelessness in the school. Mostly, the academic performance of students will rise tremendously, making the university to achieve educational success.
Conclusion
Food insecurity and hunger comprise a growing problem in colleges and universities. The escalating cost of education and the rising number of nontraditional scholars implies that many students are surviving on a strained budget. Today, students must find a convenient way to provide their living expenses while paying for their studies on campus. Furthermore, the student does not live in a dormitory that his or her parent pays for like in high school. Few parents fund their children while on campus. Most students have to seek means of obtaining finances to provide for their needs, including food and homes where they stay after their studies. By engaging effective programs like introducing food banks, the universities and colleges can fight food insecurity and homelessness, making students to achieve academic success.
References
Evans, B. A. (2016). Homeless and hungry in college. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 48(1), 26-29.
James D., Brandon M., & Clare C. (2016). Hunger on Campus. The Challenge of Food Insecurity for College Students. 46(1), 6-31.
Payne-Sturges, D. C., Tjaden, A., Caldeira, K. M., Vincent, K. B., & Arria, A. M. (2018). Student hunger on campus: food insecurity among college students and implications for academic institutions. American Journal of Health Promotion, 32(2), 349-354.