When we discussed the Campus Hunger Project with our Challah for Hunger leaders earlier this year, students were often surprised to learn about this issue. We weren’t surprised, and after reading Paul’s story, you’ll understand why. Broadcasting stories about college food insecurity to our personal and larger networks is necessary to reduce the stigma around this issue.

Not all students are as willing to talk as Paul was. Two years after his story was published, there are still food insecure college students who report not only feeling anxious about their financial struggles, but also uncomfortable disclosing their struggle to friends.

An anonymous 21 year old at Pennsylvania State University expressed this concern:“I like to provide for myself…[it]’s the worst feeling you can think of to ask for somebody’s help in your time of struggle.”

The good news is that more college students are breaking the silence. They’re starting to talk publicly about their experiences with hunger and how feelings of shame or isolation prevented them from reaching out for help. By cultivating greater awareness, we can start to build a stronger, more empathetic support network for our students.

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Toni Airaksinen (quoted in image) is a Barnard College student and advocate for low-income and first generation college students. She’s written about students who have passed out because of hunger, skipped or cut down on meals, and borrowed money from friends for food.

The cost of tuition and living expenses is a huge factor for students deciding where to attend college. It’s vital they have accurate estimates of the expenses they should expect to pay. This made it all the more shocking when we learned that students can’t depend upon colleges for basic information like the cost of attendance.

The federal definition of the “cost of attendance” (COA) includes the costs of tuition, fees, books, supplies and living expenses like food and rent. However, a recent study of how colleges and universities define COA revealed a significant gap between their estimates and standard cost measures that account for location-specific differences. (For example, average rent and food costs vary tremendously from city to city.)Researchers found that compared to cost measures that take into account these differences, 1/3 of colleges provide families with COA estimates that are off by at least $3,000.

60% of college students that begin a degree graduate within 6 years. For these students, paying a few hundred dollars more a month than they budgeted means cutting other costs like food and books. No one should be forced to make this choice.

Check out the latest action alert from the Campus Hunger Project. 
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There is no single root cause of food insecurity among college students. Food insecurity exists in a tangled web of issues related to income, education, race and class.

Let’s start by looking at the world of higher-education. Today, a college degree is more necessary than ever to secure a job, advance a career, and afford a basic quality of life. Out of the 11.6 million jobs created during the recovery from the 2008 Recession, 99% of those jobs went to those with at least part of a college education.

But the path to a college degree comes with challenges of its own. More than half of K-12 students in America’s public schools (almost 30 million) are low income and eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. For those students that enroll in college, the food insecurity they faced doesn’t disappear when they graduate from high school.

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