http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/02/06/student-hunger-college-food-banks
I read so often how good the poor have it when it comes to college costs as they get good financial aid. Some colleges do provide close to a full ride, but so many more don’t even come close.
This might help shed some light on why so many lower income students don’t graduate from colleges.
You can put many college scholarship athletes in this category. If the athlete gets hungry after their dining hall is closed, they are out of luck if they came from a poor family.
Funniest story I heard was from a guy who went to West Point. He didn’t get enough food so would make sure to drink a lot of milk before leaving the table so he would leave full. The other person I knew who was a runner at West Point found out which cadets were overweight and were on diets, he would ask for their main course which they give him. Of course West Point is a very different situation since the food is free.
I’m sure other campuses besides Reed have students who otherwise would waste food if it wasn’t for the scrounges.
http://www.wastedfood.com/2007/11/14/scrounging-around/
Hard to believe @dadoftwingirls. The service academies allow table to ask for seconds if the run out. And the cadets are fed ~3K calories/day. I have a hard time feeling sorry for scholarship athletes who get hungry after the chow hall closes. They can eat as much as they want while it’s open. Poor planning makes it a problem?
When you had a few dollars, you bought rice and beans so there was something to get you through the lean times.
And ramen was about a nickel a pack on sale, so as long as you had some space under your bed to store it and a hotpot, you could keep the tummy full.
The NCAA has relaxed the meal rules this year, and everyone thinks it is for the better. For the past decade or so, the NCAA regulated snacks that could be provided between the 3 meals per day, and the rules were stupid. Bagels but no cream cheese (that made it a meal). Only certain drinks on the field (water was unlimited!). The players could be out there for 4-5 hours with nothing to eat. That’s ridiculous. It hurt the scholarship players, but really hurt the non-scholarship players who got nothing. There are stories about the scholarship players stealing food for their friends who were hungry. These guys can’t go out and get job as they are students and putting in 40+ hours a week for football.
I’m glad it has changed.
I really don’t like they way schools do the hot lunch program. I say they are kids, feed them all. Then we’d have no problems with kids not having lunch money so no lunch. Feed them. Do away with the bureaucracy of the free/reduced lunch program and just feed every k-12 child who wants lunch.
@dadoftwingirls West Point is very different. From their website:
All cadets dine together in the Cadet Mess Hall in Washington Hall. Meals are planned to meet the nutritional needs of your busy daily schedule. The food is high quality and is served family style.
They’re being prepared for military life and none of them are wondering where or when their next meal will be. As cadets a lot of their life is highly regulated, and they’ve signed on for it all. There is no financial cost to them.
As for the athletes, and students in general, after the dining halls close generally the cost for food is on the student. For those without the funds, it’s obviously much harder than for those who can afford to buy or order after hours meals or snacks. It would be great if more colleges could offer late night meals during the week like Pomona does. Studying is hard work and students get hungry.
But the article and the problem is about students who are malnourished and starving during college because financial aid was insufficient and they can’t afford food. Ramen noodles, scrounging, going to off campus food kitchens and other ways of getting by takes a toll on those students physically and mentally. I don’t know numbers but I would think that this would be a reason for higher drop out rates among the low income students. At some point, a job and being able to buy food would seem better than continuing to go hungry at college.
@emeraldkity4 I’m all for not wasting food, but is it really ideal for students to eat what’s left over on another’s plate? Wouldn’t it be better if food which hadn’t been on another person’s plate was available to them? Some colleges have student run programs to take the leftover food from the campus kitchens and distribute it to those in need. This is at least what should be done only the food should be distributed to the students who can’t afford the regular meal plans. At Reed there are probably many students who take more food than they plan on eating just to help provide leftovers for the scrounging students. Why can’t the food get to the “scroungers” from the kitchen instead of off other students’ plates? Can’t even imagine what it’s like during flu season.
I was on food stamps and went to the foodbank when I was an undergrad. I had to move off campus because meal plans were mandatory (if you lived on campus) and they were grossly overpriced.
I still feed 2 people on less than $200/month because that was my food stamps amount and that’s what I’ve learned to live off of.
@emeraldkity4 I think it’s great that Reed does provide a garden for students to grow some food and it would be worse if they didn’t “allow” the scrounging, but I think they can do better.
Grossly overpriced? My daughter’s is $2660 per semester! I never spent close to that for 3 people in a year. She lives in a suite style apartment, but no stove and they aren’t supposed to have any appliances. Still, they have a fridge (full size) and never do any of them go to the dining hall 3 times in one day. For $10,000 for the four of them, they could hire a chef and eat three meals a day in the apartment!
Next year as sophomores they can live in the same style of apartments but the meal plan is only $1700. Hmm, do you think sophomores eat less or are just smarter and won’t pay (because there are apartments where they don’t have to have a meal plan)?
The scroungers could also find a job which would qualify them for food stamps.
Even without food stamps they could go to a food bank, so it seems like more of an affectation than a necessity to me.
Scrounging at an expensive private school, ( which meets 100% need) reminds me of the trust fund babies advocating for the hippie lifestyle in the '60’s.
They also are big fans of " the bins", which are dumpsters full of free stuff at Goodwill.
I’ve never heard of any big outbreak of flu or even colds from the cafeteria practices.
Smoking kills germs, ya know.
@romanigypsyeyes I think the mandatory meal plans requirements are a problem for a lot of students. Moving off campus can cost less for some students but it can also cause added burdens on their time. Getting back and forth to campus, buying food and preparing meals is time consuming as I’m sure you know. What would you suggest to help students?
I’m not sure I have many suggestions. I had been shopping and cooking for myself for a while by the time I got to college. I was also in an unusual situation where my partner helped me do a lot of the shopping and cooking.
I ate a lot of pasta and probably not very healthy food.
My suggestions are not for the students but for the universities. I firmly believe that every student, from K through grad school, should be provided with food.
I was looking for suggestions on what the universities could do and I agree that no student should go hungry.
I don’t think its the purview of a school for adults to provide food or housing for adults.
It’s nice when they offer it, and they should have support staff to help students access resources in the community, but I don’t want my tax dollars going to duplicating resources.
When did “going away” become the norm for college students? In my generation, the majority of kids who went to college did so as commuters. They lived at home and ate at home.
Not sure why students can’t make a pbj sandwich or take a yogurt and piece of fruit and put it away for later if they are the type to get hungry.
You can’t take food out of dining halls at my undergrad.
@GMTplus7 I think the majority of college students do still commute, but that includes community college. For low income students, private schools are often less expensive than the local state ones. There are many students who don’t complete community college due to financial difficulties. It’s a money problem whether the student commutes or boards.