Hunger

Food Insecurity
Persists Despite
Students’ Efforts
Food insecurity is a problem even for students who participate
in a campus meal plan, are employed, or seek other financial or
material help.
Students with Campus Meal Plans Are
Not Immune to Food Insecurity
Ideally, participating in a meal plan with a campus dining hall would
eliminate the threat of food insecurity. Responses from students at
four-year universities (community colleges generally do not have dining
programs) show that this is not necessarily the case. Forty-three percent
of students who were enrolled in a campus meal
plan were still food insecure.
Forty-three
percent of
students who
were enrolled in
a campus meal
plan were still
food insecure.
To understand this finding, consider the way
that campus meal plans are structured. At most
universities, students have several options for
the number of meals to buy as part of their
meal plan. For example, many students choose
to buy a plan with 7 or 14 meals per week and
then find their remaining meals someplace else,
either because they want to have more variety in
their eating options, they don’t want to pay for
a larger meal plan, or they can’t afford a larger
meal plan. 22
Fifty-six percent of meal plan enrollees reported eating nine meals or
fewer per week in the dining hall. Not surprisingly, meal plan enrollees
22 Sara Goldrick-Rab et al, The Century Foundation, “The Real Price of College,” March 3, 2016,
https://tcf.org/content/report/the-real-price-of-college.
23