In Dealing With Campus Hunger, One Solution Is to Tell Students Where They Can Get Help

A recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that in the face of a growing campus hunger problem, many colleges are taking matters into their own hands by starting campus programs like food banks and meal-sharing services.

Joy Kostansek, a graduate student in anthropology and sociology at Ohio University, is one student leader who is helping university administrators mitigate what some call “food insecurity,” or uncertainty about where a next meal will come from. In 2018, the university became one of a few institutions with a campus location that accepts Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamp, benefits. The campus food bank is stocked with fresh produce from a student farm and offers micro-loans to students who need emergency funds.

At Ohio University, some solutions are integrated into the curriculum. The university’s food-studies program was developed to help freshmen navigate general-education courses with a focus on hunger, global food systems, and sustainable health choices. Each student in the program is required to take an internship that gives them greater access to food banks and nonprofits in the community.

Kostansek received a food-studies certificate during her undergraduate years at Ohio University and now works as a graduate assistant helping to expand that program. She wants more students to understand that they are eligible for SNAP assistance, and she hopes to destigmatize the benefits.

She spoke with The Chronicle about the emotional toll hunger takes on students and how administrators can encourage their students to help solve food insecurity on campus. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q. How has hunger affected the people you know at Ohio University?

A. I’ve gotten to know several people who are food insecure. At OU, both freshmen and sophomores have to stay on campus and get a meal plan. It can mask food insecurity because most people are not directly paying for food day to day. A lot of people don’t define themselves as food insecure until they become aware that they don’t have the finances to afford food without the meal plan. I wouldn’t consider myself food insecure now, but at the beginning of this semester I was in a situation where my funding got messed up, and I wasn’t paid for six weeks. I used the food pantry on campus until I got paid.

Q. How did you make the decision to get involved with this problem on your campus?

A. Ohio University is in Appalachia, and depending on what statistics you look at, the county we’re in is consistently considered one of the poorest in the state. It’s a problem that surrounds us. A lot of different nonprofits work to address it. When I became involved with the food-studies program I interned with a nonprofit called Community Food Initiative.

Now I’m on the steering committee for our campus food pantry. We discuss how we can better serve the people who use the pantry. I’m also with the student farm on campus, which has a mission of education and outreach about healthy, local eating on a budget.

Q. Why are changes being made in the food pantry?

A. The space we had last semester made it very hard to track and gain metrics. It’s in an open space where anyone can come in, which is great because a lot of food does leave, but it’s hard to know if that’s a few students taking a lot of food or a lot of students taking a little bit of food each. We’re transitioning so we can still provide that service but also be able to see how we can help them get what they need.

Q. Of the programs Ohio University has put in place to deal with food insecurity, which are the most effective?

A. It’s hard to say which is most effective because we don’t have a lot of metrics. The food pantry is the most accessible, but we have programs that address this problem more holistically by educating people.

Q. What are the perspectives that administrators miss when they focus on this problem?

A. More than anything it’s getting students in the conversation who are actually living this. Leaders can come to it with an educational background, but you need students to understand what it’s like to be a hungry student.

We have one student on the steering committee who gives us great insight about the emotional battle of food insecurity. She points out that maybe we don’t want to put a photo of a can on a marketing flier for a food drive because we’re trying to move away from thinking that people who are food insecure should accept only eating processed canned food.

Q. How do you address the emotional burden that comes with this problem?

A. First and foremost is showing people that they deserve healthy, nutritious food that won’t just make them full but will help them feel good. It’s humanizing to not just eat out of a can or eat ramen all the time. Part of how we do that is by having a student farm. The community has access to fresh produce that’s grown half a mile from campus. We also work with Community Food Initiatives and the southeast Ohio food bank. That reminds people on campus that there’s a network of support for them.

Q. One of the challenges of helping hungry college students is that many of them aren’t aware that government assistance is available to them. Do you think students are aware that they’re eligible for SNAP?

A. Absolutely not. We have Jefferson Marketplace, which accepts SNAP benefits, but I’ve talked to students and so many of them don’t even know that they qualify for SNAP let alone that they can use it on campus. Understanding is a huge piece that’s missing.

Q. What kind of support do you think students need to get that understanding?

A. We have to show them what the average student income is so there’s less shame. Then show the resources available to them. Once there’s an awareness, there have to be greater efforts to help students apply. It can be a lot to sift through, especially as a student.

Going beyond SNAP, individual campuses need to understand what the extent of food insecurity on their campus is and what their students specifically need. That’s something we’ve devoted a lot of time to. The question we’ve asked is, how do we promote our services in a way that’s accessible to the people who need it?

Zipporah Osei is an editorial intern at The Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter @zipporahosei, or email her at zipporah.osei@chronicle.com.

Correction (2/19/2019, 12:44 p.m.): The photo credit with this article misspelled the surname of the photographer. She is Alexandria Polanosky, not Polanosk. The error has been corrected.