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Food Insecurity on College Campuses
The Wisconsin HOPE Lab is at the forefront of conducting research into basic needs insecurity among college students. Insecurity in all its various forms jeopardizes a student’s academic achievements as well as their health and wellbeing. Specific to food security, 23% of community college students have experienced low food security (restricted or decreased food intake due to lack of resources) while 33% have endured very low food security (amount of food eaten is below the amount considered appropriate).

Community college students are more likely to be food insecure than those students at four-year colleges. African American and Latino college students are food insecure to greater extent than Asian and White college students. Three-fourths of college students that are food insecure receive some form of financial aid while the majority of the students are employed. It has been found that food insecurity at the community college level is far higher for students concentrated in mathematics, developmental writing, and reading. Food insecure students are more likely to consider dropping out of college and less likely to stay on track toward obtaining their academic goals than those that are food secure.

Food insecurity is not restricted to just students on college campuses. Based on a survey of University of California administrative employees, 25% had experienced low food security in the previous 12 months while 45% had reported experiencing very low food security.

Effective strategies used by some campuses include increasing awareness of on-campus resources, create or expand food pantries, train food security crisis response teams, and establish relationships with community partners.