Without my scholarship, I wouldn’t have attended college at all regardless of location or cost. My budget was zero. My full ride included the full meal plan — 13 meals/week (no breakfasts or Sunday dinners). At the time, the U didn’t offer any more than that, so there was no other planning to be done. I just assumed everyone was only eating 13 meals a week except for a few kids who were rich enough to get pizzas or fast food or have a refrigerator in their rooms where they could store food they had money to purchase. I wasn’t one of those kids. My scholarship was tied to my dorm (residential college); I had to live there all four years. I’m not asking anyone to feel sorry for me. I certainly didn’t feel sorry for myself. I thought my situation was normal and didn’t think about being hungry because that’s just the way it was. Sacrifice certainly never crossed my mind.
This thread brought back memories that I haven’t thought of since I graduated, and I offered my experience simply as an example of someone who was not starving but often went hungry (like the title says). I’m also with @crimsonmom2019 that accepting hunger in American colleges should not be looked at as some kind of acceptable sacrifice. Humans may be pretty adaptable and clever @barrons, but I hope you weren’t implying that if a food insecure student were more adaptable or clever, he wouldn’t be so hungry. A quote about cake is coming to mind.