COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Food insecurity on college campuses is a hidden crisis that’s difficult to measure and little understood, but as the issue becomes more prevalent, universities, including this one, are working to alleviate the problem.
Dining Services and the University Health Center are collaborating with other campus departments and student volunteers to open a food pantry in late October in Cole Field House that will distribute free pre-packed bags of groceries to students, faculty and staff in need.
With the rising cost of college and the growing necessity for a higher education, more and more people at universities are struggling with tuition and costs of living, often leaving little money to budget for food — a more flexible expense than rent or a tuition bill, said Jane Jakubczak, coordinator of nutrition services at the Health Center.
It wasn’t until about five years ago that Jakubczak, who is a nutrition counselor for students, began to hear complaints of hunger from a few of her clients. Since then about six students have expressed their concerns to her about food insecurity or their inability to afford healthy food, but Jakubczak suspects there are many more students and staff members suffering at this university.
“If six to eight are actually telling me that that’s a road block to eating healthy, there are probably 10 times more who aren’t sharing,” she said. “I think students who are struggling with this may be self-conscious about it, it’s really similar to other things that have a stigma associated with it.”
Food insecurity in university populations is difficult to measure and there are little data available, said Devon Payne-Sturges, a public health professor. Payne-Sturges is working to create a survey tool to measure the issue at this university based on two published reports of similar research done at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and Western Oregon University. Both universities found significant rates of food insecurity among the students surveyed: 21 percent at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and 59 percent at Western Oregon University.