With increasing attention in recent years to the problem of food insecurity on college campuses, anti-hunger advocates have pushed to sign more students up for SNAP benefits. But many students still don’t realize that they may qualify for the program, said Michelle Fausto, a fellow with the Congressional Hunger Center who did fieldwork at the University of California Irvine’s FRESH Basic Needs Hub, which aims to address food and housing insecurity among students.
“There are a lot of different myths and misconceptions that we are trying to highlight,” she said on Thursday, speaking at an event during which the center’s 19 fellows shared lessons from their experiences.
For example, to receive CalFresh, as SNAP is called in California, students typically must work 20 hours a week, which many of them can’t juggle alongside their course loads. But what many students don’t realize is that they don’t have to meet the work requirement if they are eligible for work-study or if their financial aid packages estimate their family’s financial contribution at zero.
At UC Irvine, students of color were much more likely to report experiencing low or very low food security than their white peers, Fausto said. More than half of Native American, African American, and Hispanic/Latinx UC Irvine students reported experiencing low or very low food security, according to University of California data from 2016, 2018, and 2020. Getting more students of color signed up for SNAP is an important way to address these disparities, Fausto said, and she recommended that outreach efforts specifically target students of color, as well as youth who are aging out of foster care, who are generally eligible for SNAP but may not enroll.
Fausto also said that students are sometimes hesitant to apply for SNAP because they worry that they’ll be taking benefits away from someone who needs them more. In reality, SNAP is an entitlement program, which means everyone who meets its eligibility requirements can receive benefits.
Nationwide, in 2020, 39 percent of students at two-year institutions and 29 percent of those at four-year institutions experienced food insecurity, according to a study of 195,000 students published last spring by the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice, which is housed at Temple University.
Advocates say a number of factors drive food insecurity among students, including the high costs of tuition, housing, and food and the fact that many students don’t have kitchen access. Many also point out that higher education policy has failed to take into account the changing demographics of today’s college students, who often get no financial help from their parents or have children of their own.
Campuses across the country are trying to respond to students’ food and housing insecurity in myriad ways. Colleges have opened food pantries and community gardens, offered emergency loans, started “meal swipe” programs that let students donate unused meals to those in need, and expanded students’ ability to use SNAP at campus stores and, in some cases, to buy prepared food.
Fausto is working to create a tool kit for campus anti-hunger groups that want to promote SNAP among students. One of her key recommendations is to staff up intentionally, prioritizing students who have firsthand experience with hunger and poverty. Student groups should go beyond simply informing students about SNAP, she said. They should sit students down and help them apply, since the process can be confusing and requires extensive documentation.
California, New Jersey, Maryland, and Minnesota have passed Hunger Free Campus bills that require colleges to address food insecurity among students. Under a new law passed last summer, all community colleges in California must also create “basic needs centers” that serve as a single stop where students can get help accessing food, housing, mental health services, and other resources.
In 2020 and 2021, the U.S. Department of Education made $76 billion available to higher education institutions as part of the Higher Education Relief Fund, with the stipulation that recipients use at least half the funding to make emergency grants to students to cover such basic needs as food, housing, and childcare.