In May 2023, the California Student Aid Commission (Commission) administered our inaugural Food and Housing Survey, as a supplement to the triannual Student Expenses and Resources Survey (SEARS). This survey asked students about their experiences paying for food and housing during the 2022-23 academic year.
Having valid measures of college student FI is essential for justifying basic-needs services for students. But college student food insecurity (FI) rates vary significantly across institutions, perhaps partially due to differences in non-response bias resulting from participant recruitment strategies. We tested for effects of recruitment method on measured levels of college student FI at three time points (2020, 2021, 2022). Survey response rates varied dramatically across recruitment modalities. Higher FI rates were estimated in low-response-rate survey deliveries. Emailed surveys appear to inflate estimates of student FI. Efforts to increase response rates likely produce more valid estimates of college student FI.
Op-Ed in Diverse
The RealCollege survey, the nation’s largest annual assessment of basic needs security among college students, was last comprehensively reported for California Community Colleges in a 20191 report. In spring 2023, The Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges (The RP Group) partnered with the CEO Affordability, Food & Housing Access Taskforce of the Community College League of California (CCLC) to assist in survey data collection efforts and provide updated data trends regarding California Community College (CCC) students’ food and housing security. Over 66,000 students from 88 California Community Colleges responded to the survey, revealing that two out of every three CCC students grapple with at least one basic needs insecurity. Nearly half of CCC students are food insecure, almost 3 out of 5 are housing insecure, and about 1 in 4 are homeless.
This secondary analysis examined the differences in food security, knowledge of eligibility for food assistance programs, and access to food programming across students attending two- and four-year public postsecondary institutions in the state of Connecticut. This study found two-year college students experienced a higher prevalence of food insecurity and were also more aware of their eligibility for SNAP than students attending four-year institutions. Additionally, all institutions provided students with an on-campus food pantry. Further research is needed to understand differences in food security and opportunities to address student barriers to the use of available resources to support food security.
The purpose of this study was to examine the variables associated with adult undergraduates’ food and housing insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were derived from the 2020 #RealCollege Survey, which was completed by 25,838 adult undergraduates (≥25 years old) at 72 4-year and 127 2-year institutions in 42 U.S. states. The results suggest that 43.2% of adult undergraduates experienced food insecurity, and 60.6% experienced housing insecurity. Adult undergraduates who had multiple disabilities, grew up in lower-income families, had previously lived in foster care, attended 2-year colleges, and did not live with a spouse/partner had significantly higher probabilities of experiencing food or housing insecurity. Furthermore, first-generation students, international students, or caregivers, parents, or guardians to children had significantly higher probabilities of experiencing food and housing insecurity. Finally, adult undergraduates who experienced COVID-19 pandemic-related academic and financial and health difficulties also had higher probabilities of experiencing food and housing insecurity.
Seventeen peer-reviewed studies and 41 sources of gray literature were identified (out of 11,476 titles). All studies were cross-sectional. Rates of FI were high among students, with average rates across the gray and peer-reviewed literature of 35% and 42%, respectively. FI was consistently associated with financial independence, poor health, and adverse academic outcomes. Suggested solutions to address food security among postsecondary institutions addressed all areas of the socioecologic model, but the solutions most practiced included those in the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and institutional levels.
FI is a major public health problem among postsecondary education students. Studies are needed to assess the long-term influence of FI among this vulnerable population. More research is needed on the effectiveness of FI interventions.
The purpose of this study was to examine whether first-generation students with disabilities at community colleges experience different rates in food and housing insecurity compared to their peers during the COVID-19 pandemic. First-generation students with multiple disabilities, a psychological disorder, another disability or medical condition not offered in the survey, and chronic illness had increased odds of experiencing food and housing insecurity; first-generation students with physical disabilities and cognitive, learning, or neurological disorders or disabilities had increased odds of experiencing food insecurity; and continuing-generation students with multiple disabilities also had increased odds of experiencing food and housing insecurity.
In the fall of 2019, the American Indian College Fund published a report about a Gallup survey on tribal college alumni. The report illustrates how tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) are institutions that provide Native students with the education, skills, and support they need to succeed. The report also shows that Native students who attend TCUs succeed at greater rates than those who attend other institutions of higher education. Fast-forward to the spring of 2020 when TCUs were forced to move operations to a virtual setting due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As businesses shuttered and outbreaks pummeled Indian Country, the College Fund worked to foster greater awareness of the pandemic’s impact on tribal communities, the TCUs, and Native students in an effort to solicit increased support.
The approach was simple. The College Fund used data from both the Gallup survey and the #RealCollege survey conducted by the Hope Center at Temple University, which interviewed 1,050 students from seven TCUs in seven states nationwide to determine the extent of food and housing insecurity and to understand the impact the pandemic could have on TCUs, their students, and the Native communities they serve. The College Fund also used data gleaned from surveys conducted with its Full Circle scholars in the spring of 2020 to understand how they would be impacted by the pandemic.
But rather than take a purely quantitative approach, the College Fund also reached out to student ambassadors and TCU presidents to ask them to share their personal stories, knowing that people first connect to individuals rather than numbers. “Stories guide us, give us identity, and build shared values,” stated College Fund president Cheryl Crazy Bull, adding, “[the College Fund’s] team members recognize that stories and data go hand-in-hand.”
The result of marrying data with public relations outreach increased national and regional attention to the pandemic’s impact on TCUs and TCU students in national publications such as The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Nation, and Teen Vogue, as well as regional outlets like Montana Public Radio. It is our hope that TCUs can use the data and the following case study for their own public relations and to help raise awareness of the importance of tribally controlled higher education.