For many college students, hunger is as much a part of the campus experience as finals. Studies suggest that as many as 30% of college students face food insecurity, with hunger more prevalent among first-generation college students, single parents, Latinx and African American students, and former foster youth.
Hunger can contribute to missing classes and study sessions, not being able to afford textbooks, poor academic performance, and eventually dropping classes.
On March 22, Harvard University and Food For Free hosted Hunger on Campus, a presentation about the growing impact of hunger among college students and the roles that colleges and universities can play in addressing this issue.
Food For Free’s Executive Director, Sasha Purpura spoke about the challenges faced by many “nontraditional” students, who return to school later in life, without parental support, and perhaps with their own children to take care of. She called out the painful irony of struggling with hunger just as you are taking action to improve your life and that of your family.
Harvard University Dining Services Managing Director, David Davidson spoke eloquently about the role that Harvard University Dining Services has played in collecting their own surplus and channeling that surplus into Food For Free’s programs. He noted the benefits to Harvard of donating to Food For Free, including a greater awareness of their food waste, which has led to meaningful reductions, as well as contributions to staff morale.
Davidson has been a dedicated partner to Food For Free since 2014, when we first began working with Harvard University Dining Services. Harvard continues to be our biggest donor of prepared foods and plays a critical role in piloting new approaches to food rescue, like the student-led meal packaging efforts now in place at both Harvard and Tufts.
Next, attendees heard from Katie Cronmiller, Assistant Coordinator of Student Engagement at MassBay Community College. Cronmiller spoke about the presence of hunger among MassBay’s students and the work the college is doing to address this crisis. Among their efforts is a partnership with Food For Free to distribute Family Meals to students.
MassBay has been a wonderful partner for Family Meals, because of the care and thought they’ve put into how to distribute these meals, and how best to collect meaningful data from their students. We’ve been impressed with the balance that MassBay strikes between collecting useful information and not creating additional barriers to accessing services.
Finally, we heard from Maxwell Morrangiello, a MassBay student who spoke of the challenges of being a community college student and the supports—including Family Meals—that he has found helpful.
This event was hosted by the Tom Lucey, and Harvard University’s Office of Government & Community Relations. Attendance was limited to a small group including some of Food For Free’s most involved supporters.
If you’d like to learn more about hunger on campus, we recommend Food Insecurity: Better Information Could Help Eligible College Students Access Federal Food Assistance Benefits and Hunger On Campus: The Challenge of Food Insecurity for College Students
