Document Tag: food insecurity

Food Insecurity and Homelessness in American Higher Education: An Overview of New Nationally Representative Estimates (2023)

UPDATE: New version amended with additional table (July 30, 2023)

This memo offers new nationally representative estimates of food insecurity and homelessness affecting the nation’s college students, obtained from the just-released National Postsecondary Student Aid Study: 2020 (NPSAS), and compares them to estimates from my prior research studies conducted at The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice.

The results confirm that a sizable number of the nation’s college students—including graduate students—are food insecure and some are homeless. As long suspected, the rate is higher for college students than for the broader public. Moreover, we can now see that basic needs insecurity is a problem at every type of college and university and cuts across student demographics and even traditional measures of income and financial need.

● 23% of undergraduates and 12% of graduate students experienced food insecurity.
● 8% of undergraduates and 5% of graduate students experienced homelessness.
● Basic needs insecurity affects 35% of Black/African American students, 30% of Native American students, and 25% of Hispanic students.
● For-profit colleges and universities and Historically Black Colleges and Universities have the highest rates of basic needs insecurity among their students.

The coalition of institutions willing to assess and address these problems had higher rates of the challenges— now that all institutions are included the averages are lower, yet still substantial. We owe a debt of gratitude to those brave institutions that led the way and convinced the federal government to count what matters most to students – the security of their basic needs.

Hungry to Win: A First Look at Food and Housing Insecurity Among Student-Athletes (2019)

Student-athletes compete in school and on the field. They are often full-time students and fulltime athletes, making it challenging to manage their time, health, and finances. Some receive financial assistance for their participation. Full scholarships are uncommon and generally awarded at Division I schools. Most student-athletes, however, receive only partial scholarships or none at all. Yet nearly all face additional rules, restrictions, and requirements based on their funding, their coaches, and the collegiate athletics association. For example, student-athletes are frequently prohibited from working while their sports are in-season. They are also unable to accept “extra benefits” from anyone to help with living costs. Former Baylor running back Silas Nacita was homeless but lost NCAA eligibility after accepting unapproved housing, while former UCLA linebacker Donnie Edwards was forced to pay restitution for accepting groceries left for him when he was food insecure.1 This is the first report to expand on media coverage documenting incidents of food and housing insecurity, even homelessness, among student-athletes. Given the limited sample size, it can be assumed that the prevalence—and the consequences—of these incidents are much more pervasive.

Public Testimony on Hunger in Higher Education, Submitted to the National Commission on Hunger (2015)

For the past several years, we have conducted research on hunger affecting college studentsacross the nation, and we thank you for the opportunity to share what we have learned. Our goalis to provide useful information about food insecurity among undergraduates and offer potential policy solutions to help alleviate this problem.We urge the National Commission on Hunger to align hunger policies with educational policies, in order to ensure that individuals from low-income and economically vulnerable backgrounds have a fair shot at mastering college-level material and securing college credentials.In particular, we recommend the following actions.