My husband attended a college in northern MN that is located right next to a lake. He actually knew kids that had a fish house set up on the lake where they would sleep at night. They had basic camping equipment and would fish to eat. They’d hang out on campus as much as possible during the day and use the locker rooms in the PE building to clean up. They also had a friend they knew from community college sleep on their couch during the week because they found out he was sleeping in his car because he couldn’t afford a place to stay. There is no way in the world these kids could have ever lived in dorms with meal plans because just paying tuition was already a stretch. This was not an expensive college and it was back in the 80s when tuition wasn’t so insanely expensive. These are the kids that today would be going to food banks or just not going to college at all. The article is talking about students like this, not kids living in the dorms on meal plans.