These food insecure kids are not blaming the college. They tend to be incredibly grateful for everything the colleges do for them. They tend to be very resourceful, and not at all whiny. Especially at the elite colleges/universities.
Anyone who truly sees food insecure people as “whiny” does not understand food insecurity.
Many of these kids understand precisely why they are among the food insecure, because of conscious decisions to prioritize other family obligations. They have become adept at finding temporary solutions, but in many cases they don’t always realize the disadvantage they put themselves in academically. After working their part time jobs and sending their paychecks home, they occasionally have to spend the mental energy worrying where their next meal(s) are coming from. This isn’t an everyday problem for all students, but more likely an occasional but recurring concern.
Freshmen tend to have the biggest problem handling this, because of the culture shock, and the solutions are not always well advertised, but students in all years are affected.
Food insecurity is a much bigger problem in our society than most people can even begin understand. Many people won’t even try to understand it, because it’s easier to dismiss the problem and/or blame the victims. After all, that lets us rationalize our own sometimes insensitive behavior by not doing anything about it.