I like it just fine now, but then, when there wasn’t really much of a choice, it got old.
@barrons: My scholarship required work-study; that was the “cash” part of my book stipend. Ironically, I did work-study in the cafeteria in my dorm, 10 hours/week which was the max food services would assign to a student (there were a LOT of us vying for those work-study hours everywhere on campus). That money had to cover text books and everything else (blue books, pencils, toothpaste, etc.) and often wasn’t enough. Same with my summer money, some of which went to help my mom, enough to get by, not enough to save anything of significance for the school year.
Again, this is not a story of starvation, just a story of a student used to living on very little who wouldn’t think to spend any pocket change, when I was lucky enough to have some, on food. There were too many other things I had to have and there was always another cafeteria meal tomorrow. Food could wait. Also, it’s not like I didn’t have friends or never attended a party — there WERE occasional supplements from social sources, but the day-to-day was as I described. Not much more to add here.
The whole idea of needy kids receiving meals in school is part of the reason why some city schools-- NYC in particular but I’m sure we’re not alone-- really, REALLY try not to take snow days. It’s not only about education or the safety of the roads or the ability to get staff in. And it’s only partially about child care. But some of those kids only get a hot meal or any real nutrition on school days, so the Board of Ed really tries not to lose any.
I’m assuming the same people that say just stay home and commute to eliminate hunger probably can’t imagine that everyone doesn’t have that option. Some families require you (at 18) to become an equal financial contributor, some homes have so much going on that being home is not conducive to learning and growing, some people don’t live in safe communities, the list goes on.
Another important factor that seems to be left out of the just commute so you can eat conversation… Many schools are offering more than just book education to a low income student. I mentored in a high school program for students who would be first generation college students. One mother cried because she said no one in her family had ever left. Her daughter had never left the city she lived in and she was afraid for her. Also, she was the family babysitter and the mother had concerns with how to manage younger kids without her. This young lady went 2 hours away to college where she had an almost full ride, but definitely struggled a bit for money. She is now a grad and working as a program manager in her college town for a an organization very similar to the one that helped her. Had she stayed home and commuted, I’m not sure her family responsibilities would have led to her current results. From never leaving your city to studying abroad, to internships everywhere, and to her current life… That is quite a leap…
I have to wonder if some of the negativity has more to do with some feeling that the space of a hungry student at Elite U could have gone to their child, sibling, friend’s kid, etc,? Not suggesting this as fact, but the thought crossed my mind.
This conversation has caused me to reevaluate how I support my college student. His spending money and incidentals come from his campus job (which is less than 20 hours/week due to other commitments that can’t be changed). I wonder if does not tell me when he comes up short because I made a big deal out of him budgeting his own spending money. I am fortunately in a position to give him money if he needs it, but I’m not sure he would ask me for it.
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I found out after the fact that one of my kids was spending much of her “spending money” on food above and beyond the meal plan, both because she had to miss some dining hall meals because of music rehearsals and because she could not eat huge amounts at one sitting and therefore got hungry in the evening even if she had eaten her dining hall dinner. So she bought snacks. She didn’t especially mind this because she spent almost nothing on toiletries or other incidentals (she got them from the stash at home during breaks) or on recreation (she and her friends mostly just hung out in each other’s rooms or went to free campus events). But for some kids, this could be a problem.
I think this is really exaggerated. My oldest is at a top college and the cafeteria food is all organic and gourmet and massive. It blows my mind how decadent it has become since the early 90s. In tours of other top 20 colleges last summer I saw the same top-notch food programs everywhere.
Yet without fail when I visit my oldest you overhear every other kid complaining it’s gross, the hours are terrible, I can’t believe we have to pay so much for this, I want to go out to eat. It’s all so forced and bratty.
My theory is kids are always going to push boundaries - in a privileged luxurious setting they inevitably become malcontents about something, anything to try to push for more or portray themselves as victim.
@midwestsahm What does organic food have to do with anything? You clearly don’t understand the issues.
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@itsgettingreal17 I understand the issues. This is awfully exaggerated. Kids being irresponsible, kids making a story out of nothing for the sake of playing victims, spoiled kids turning into malcontents. All involved need to check their privilege.
I feel sorry for poor kids commuting to their local community college while living in a violent neighborhood or one besieged by heroin and holding down a minimum wage 9 to 5 and struggling to come up with the $200 to fix their piece of junk car’s alternator.
I do not feel sorry for any smart privileged kid at an elite university allegedly struggling to find food. It’s absurd.
@Marian Late hours is exactly where my thoughts went with him. I provide snacks for his room when I visit and when he returns to school, but does he replace them when they run out is now something I’m wondering. He does not ask for more, that is for certain. He also doesn’t buy personal items and toiletries (the grandparents provide), but he does pay for things he needs related to his major.
I’m so confused by the persistent tone deafness. Overall, I have enjoyed the different views and ideas on solutions that would or wouldn’t work.
@midwestsahm i know people at my “elite” school who could not have afforded community college. There are certainly more students here from affluent families than you’d find at most colleges, but that’s not always the case.
The point is that some kids at elite universities do NOT come from privileged backgrounds, @miswestsahm. They may come from families where money is very tight.
I went to Cornell in the 1970s, and I knew students like this. I was fairly close to being one myself because I came from a working-class background (unusual at Cornell but certainly not unheard of even then). However, unlike some of my friends, I was allowed to keep my summer job money (my family didn’t need it to meet basic expenses), so I never went hungry. But others did.
The point is that a lot of kids at universities of all ilk do not come from privileged backgrounds and even when financial aid is included, do not have enough to eat. I have seen it and I was it. Yes I worked during the school year as did many I know. Yes I worked during the summer as did many I know. And yes, there were still days I ate only one or two meals in the day.
It is offensive and incredibly insensitive to be so dismissive of my and other’s experience. Goodness I’m thankful there seem to be more who hold compassion here than that shown by a very few.
MidwestSahm… I was on the board of a community foundation which gave small grants to kids for college (not the 20K or 35K mega awards you read about in the newspaper, but small grants meant to bridge the gap) and you just cannot imagine how tough it is for some kids even at elite colleges. You can take the tone that “nobody goes hungry” and sit in judgment, but you are wrong.
There are kids who are sending every penny of their work study checks home to keep the heat on for younger siblings. There are kids who can’t replace their prescription eyeglasses if they break because the $99 to get a new pair at Walmart means they won’t eat breakfast for two months. (we’re talking a granola bar and a juice box at the local grocery store).
Of course this is bad planning. The kids should be shopping at Costco (hard without a car) and buying in bulk and storing extra packages of oatmeal under their beds and being thrifty and walking 5 miles to an Aldi for produce instead of buying the $1 banana at the small grocery store on campus. And they should be doing their workstudy job at the cafeteria instead of handing out spare keys in the housing office- except that cafeteria jobs are highly coveted because it comes with a free breakfast.
Nice to live in your world.
Some kids scrimp on meals to save money. A kid on Princeton’s 95 plan (8 meals a week) is destined to go hungry if they don’t have funds for outside food.
The complication is that some of these kids are trying to save money not because they technically can’t afford the cost of their schooling, but to send it home to pay for family expenses. The question becomes how schools should handle this. I can’t see knocking Princeton for the fact that they have students who are experiencing food insecurity because they’re paying Mom’s rent, but at the same time a hungry kid is unlikely to do as well as they could in school, so in the end it becomes the school’s problem.
I’m not suggesting that Princeton take on mom’s rent and heating bills.
But it is insensitive at the least and cruel in the extreme to claim that a kid from poverty who is trying to keep his/her family afloat while at college is a non-problem.
It’s someone’s problem. And a kid on an 8 meal a week plan is not going to die from malnutrition but boy, I’d love to see the folks here who claim this is not an issue survive for a lengthy period of time on that.
I didn’t send money home at all, ever. I worked. And still… So once we’ve addressed the personal responsibility piece, I again say, if there are solutions/policies that can be enacted to solve this issue, I am not sure why we wouldn’t do it.
Posted earlier, but see so many late posters who seemed to not believe that poor students could have lack of food in the top schools, so I post it her again. I experienced to see one of my fellow student cleaning the tables after each meals for all of us (400-500 students) to earn tuition and drank corn starch mixed with hot water to get by in the late hours when preparing finals, while all of us having enough food and snacks to eat long ago. I think you all can find some poor students in every school, and most of them do not want their peers to know about their situations for fearing they would be look down upon.
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I was not suggesting that every case of food insecurity at colleges involves kids sending money home (hence the word “some”). I was only pointing out that sometimes these cases have a variety of causes, one of which is pressure on kids to provide for their families.
I ran a food pantry in a wealthy community for many years so I know about hidden poverty and the challenges it can present. One of the challenges we faced was getting people to believe that in a community like ours there was any food insecurity at all.
Food insecurity can hit international students particularly hard in that they often don’t qualify for outside employment or for food and housing assistance, and can’t get home on breaks. Add in cultural differences and the fact that international students tend to have fewer local friends upon whom to depend and breaks can get tricky.
My husband was an international student without any spending money. A month before he came to school his home currency went through a huge devaluation and the family lost essentially all their savings. Luckily his scholarship included a standby plane ticket and the college gave him a full ride at the last minute. The college kept a dorm open over vacation for students like him and provided basic food. Because the school had a required all inclusive meal plan he never went hungry when school was in session.
BTW I also came from a lower midclass family as a first in family college student. My parents paid $0 toward my education but I did keep my summer earnings and worked part-time off campus because campus pay sucked. I had some WS but declined it. Beside work I ran a little PX cig scam on the side that made the rent money of $55/mo Sometimes money was tight and I dont recall if I always had 3 meals a day. I did make meals out of instant mashed potatoes with hot dogs and the like. Having to send money home seems like an unfair burden but I never heard of anyone doing that either. My school did not require dorm living which made much cheaper living possible.
Hitching home was a good way to reduce travel costs. (1000 miles each way). Fun times
@soontobecolleger @Marian @crimsonmom2019 Sorry, I didn’t mean privilege as in family wealth, I meant privilege to be at an elite college with obscenely generous financial aid, where grit and that credential guarantees you a ticket to the upper middle class. True privilege.
Two, sending refunds or work study money home is in clear violation of every financial aid policy I’ve ever seen. The money is for the child to spend on school related expenses, not mom’s cable bill. I do not feel bad for unethical kids (or their families) treating financial aid like a racket.
@Sue22 mentioned what is happening most frequently: Kids working angles to stretch (smaller) meal plans to get a bigger financial aid refund (or keep more of mom and dad’s money). Not to send the money home, but because they want to blow it on booze, more expensive restaurant food, clothes, new iPhone, etc.