Dozens of raised beds overflow with cherry tomatoes, bok choi and deep purple eggplants. Bees poke into pale purple flowers, while students cut through the garden to get to class on time.
Anyone can pick the fruits and vegetables in this garden nestled next to a residence hall at Northern Illinois University. Student garden worker Emily Larrivee says it’s popular with both students and the surrounding community in DeKalb, Illinois.
“The other day, I went to get tomatoes, and there was a new student moving in with his parents,” Larrivee said. “And his mom was like … can we try the tomatoes? And it's like, absolutely, they're free to take.”
This garden is part of the university’s Edible Campus program, which aims to address food insecurity among students through creating hands-on, sustainable food systems.
More than a quarter of college students across the country lack consistent access to food. At some universities, that number is much higher with up to half of the student population struggling to access food at some institutions. By comparison, about 13% of households in the U.S. experience food insecurity, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
About 29% of college students at four-year colleges experienced food insecurity in the fall of 2020, according to the Hope Center. At two-year colleges, the problem was even worse with 38% of students reporting concerns about access to food.
At NIU, the free-to-pick gardens are just one part of the university’s attempt to address student hunger. Edible Campus sent thousands of pounds of harvested fruits and vegetables to the campus dining services and NIU’s food pantry. Director Bryan Flower said they also created a free meal prep program after realizing students did not have access to kitchens while living in the dorms.
He said students in the program go home with five meals to pop in their freezer, as well as a suite of new cooking skills.
“I've had students who have said, if I didn't have this, that I could pull out of my freezer, I'd be going from breakfast all the way to dinner not having anything to eat,” Flower said.
Getting a handle on hunger
The Hope Center at Temple University in Philadelphia conducts research on student hunger and policy and evaluates basic student needs using a food insecurity survey.
Lead researcher Stacy Priniski said when students don’t know where their next meal is coming from, it significantly adds to their already heightened stress levels.
“Students are regularly making decisions about which bills to pay,” Priniski said. “About whether to go to work or to class, about whether to work three jobs versus two jobs, about how much sleep they can afford based on how many jobs they have to work and when their classes are.”
The Hope Center also advocates for policy changes at the federal level and coaches universities on specific, effective solutions that could be implemented on campus. Priniski said that one of the best ways to create meaningful change on college campuses is to center student-led action in the solution.
“One of the recommendations that we give to all of our schools is to get other students involved,” Priniski said. “Students are the biggest advocates for themselves and their peers. [They] always have really great ideas about awareness campaigns, about meeting students' needs, about when and where services are easy to access.”
Both students and universities are starting to understand the severity of the issue. One of the first things schools can do to address it is to look internally at the rates of food insecurity among students on their own campuses.
Trellis Strategies, a Texas-based marketing research group, has offered community research for more than 260 schools since 2018. They partner with universities to conduct a cost-free student financial wellness survey on campus, analyze the data and make recommendations for effective solutions.
Research manager Allyson Cornett says students from food insecure households are 43% less likely to graduate from college. She struggled to access food herself in college and is passionate about driving down the number of students who face similar issues.
“You should not have to be hungry or eat food that you don't want to eat to make ends meet, to go to school,” Cornett said. “I just keep thinking about those students that don't make it to the finish line … because there's nothing worse than paying for college and going through everything and then not having that credential to get that return on investment that you were promised.”
A major hurdle for college students is navigating state and federal food assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, according to Cornett. She said that can be an overwhelming challenge for busy college students.
“They're already trying to get all these different things done, and then we ask them to jump through some more hoops and demonstrate their poverty,” Cornett said.
At the University of Missouri Kansas City, where almost 26% of students experience food insecurity, the food assistance team has been working for years to give students better access to their services.
They participated in the Hope Center’s survey in 2020, and established a food security task force and advisory committee to address the issue head on.
Food security is a complicated, systemic issue; there’s so much that university officials can't control on their own, said UMKC Food Assistance Coordinator Carlen Fidler. She said there are ways they can intervene and offer more accessible options to their students.
“I think we all just need to sort of buckle down and work together to sort of address it, speak about it, be open about it, and hopefully see the number go down," Fidler said.
The school established a food pantry in the high-traffic student center, hired a SNAP coordinator to help students apply for federal assistance and created a system where students can donate meal swipes to their peers.
Advocates are abundantly clear about one thing: It should not be acceptable for students to struggle – and starve – while they’re working hard towards their degree.
“There's a huge stigma that, oh, if you're going to college, like, it's a rite of passage to be poor and only eat ramen,” Fidler said. “And I really don't believe that needs to be true.”
This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.
