Note: I made changes based on the comments, which were very helpful. Going forward I am going to locate infographics and insert in-text citations.

 

Mitigating the Harsh Reality of Food Insecurity at The Pennsylvania State University

Introduction

Founded in 2014, the Lion’s Pantry is the sole food pantry at the Pennsylvania State University. Its primary goal was and still is to prevent and resolve food insecurity amongst students, staff, and community members. In 2022, there were over 2,100 visitors and over 34,000 pounds of food distributed. Nonetheless, a recent article by The Daily Collegian revealed that 33% of students at Penn State have suffered with food insecurity during their time as a student. Of an approximate 45,000 students enrolled at main campus Penn State, that includes 15,000 students, leaving around 13,000 out of reach from the Lion’s Pantry.

While Penn State has made some strides to supporting students with food insecurity, there is far more that needs to be done. The school receives $242 million in federal funding alone, yet the Lion’s Pantry relies almost entirely on student and private donations as well as volunteers to keep operations running. According to HealthAffairs, students who suffer from food insecurity are more likely to have a lower GPA, have worse physical health, and are much more likely to suffer from mental health issues, including anxiety and depression. This problem has a multitude of causes that worsen the harmful effects. The first of which is financial insecurity, which has its roots in low income but consumes a larger portion of college students due to the pressure of student loans. The other major sector that causes this problem is the availability and comfort in finding supportive resources. This can be directly related to the Lion’s Pantry as it is limited in its resources, decreasing the availability, and it can be uncomfortable for students to use this resource due to stigmas.

Nobody deserves to suffer from food insecurity, especially when they are paying tens of thousands of dollars to invest in a higher education. For a university that claims to have the values of “responsibility” and “community” they have displayed a half-hearted effort in showing their responsibility to student safety and wellbeing and have failed to be supportive community members to the student body. There is no time better than now for Penn State leadership to make the changes necessary and put a stop to food insecurity for its students. This needs to be done by providing free meals at all dining halls to students who automatically qualify based on a survey in which they describe their needs. This needs to be done meticulously to avoid decreasing the program’s reach due to stigmas surrounding not being able to afford food. In order to better understand the problem and policy as a solution, it is important to fully recognize the harms of this issue.

Harms of Food Insecurity for Students

Food insecurity affects millions of Americans every year, and this problem is not forgiving when it comes to students. Over one third of college students suffer from food insecurity. As of 2020 there were 20 million college students in the United States, leaving just under seven million students with the burden of food insecurity. For this issue it is important to narrow down the scope of the issue in order to tailor the solution to a subsection of the colleges in the United States. With that in mind, the Pennsylvania State University will be the focus of the solution provided by new policy. Nonetheless, the revised policies will maintain scalability so that upon its success it can be expanded to assist a wider scope, being the entire student population within the United States.

The issue of food insecurity harms thousands of students at Penn State University. In fact, Penn State University’s 2022 Food and Housing Needs Survey revealed that 24.1% of students struggled with obtaining enough food on a daily basis. This equates to almost 20,000 students. This issue does not affect students equally. There is a disproportionate amount of minority, disabled, and LGBTQ students who suffer from food insecurity at Penn State University. Students with one or more disabilities were more likely to report having issues obtaining balanced meals. Students who identify as a part of the LGBTQ community suffer with food insecurity at a rate of 42.8%, which is 9.1% higher than heterosexual students. While 10% of white students suffer with food insecurity, 19.9% of students from minority groups and 35.2% of international students suffer with food insecurity. While there are students from many backgrounds who suffer from food insecurity, it is certainly not an equal distribution of need.

While food insecurity impacts almost all aspects of a person’s life, there are four major aspects of a student’s life that are impacted. The first aspect is academic performance. Food insecurity has been shown to directly correlate to lower GPAs when compared to their peers as well as lower attendance and graduation rates. The second aspect is physical health. Students burdened by food insecurity are more likely to be obese, due to cheaper food being higher in saturated fat, sugar, and processed components. The next aspect is mental health. Students with food insecurity are 6.19 times more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression. This makes all parts of life so much more difficult than it already is. The impacts of anxiety and depression in an already stressful situation, like being at college, cannot be understated. The final aspect is relationships. When focusing on securing food, it can lead students without the proper health or energy to maintain current and foster future relationships. They may also feel pressured into hiding their needs from friends and even family due to the stigmas of not having enough money or access to food.

In the short term, students will struggle with their schoolwork and attending classes. Furthermore, they may find it hard to build and maintain relationships. As time progresses, the negative impacts on their academic performance can leave them with student debt that can be difficult to repay as a result of limited job opportunities given their performance. While this performance is not their fault, the unforgiving job market rarely accounts for this, causing a domino effect leading deeper into food insecurity. In the long term, the effects on academic performance and health due to food insecurity have catastrophic consequences on their life. The higher likelihood of obesity will likely lead to severe health consequences. This can lead to higher expenses, leading to more issues with food insecurity, furthering this downward spiral. This highlights the immediate need for change at the college level.

The Shortcomings of Current Policy

As discussed earlier, the Lion’s Pantry makes up the bulk of action taken against food insecurity on behalf of leadership at Penn State University. There are several locations around campus where you can access food pantry resources. Another part of current policy that has played a minor role is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This program provides limited meals at certain locations on campus to students who qualify. This program caters to students who have low income and those who have to work during their time as a student Given these programs, why do students at Penn State University suffer from the effects of food insecurity?

The first shortcoming of these programs is eligibility. While the Lion’s Pantry only requires you to show a student ID, SNAP has a much more restrictive selection policy. The first requirement is that you are in a work-study program. This places a lot of pressure on a student to get a job, which may not be possible due to their schedule, other commitments, or restrictions they may have. The second requirement is for the student to fill out a rigorous financial student aid application. The student may not have access to these financial documents or may not be given enough money for food regardless of their parents’ income, and therefore not qualify for the program. This leaves students without any support.

Both the accessibility and the resources available at these programs convey another shortcoming of these programs that needs to be addressed. As previously discussed, SNAP has a relatively low accessibility due to its restrictive eligibility processes. Although the Lion’s Pantry provides food with no questions asked to those with a student ID, it is far less accessible than you may think. There is one main location to the far North of campus and there are small pickup locations throughout campus. This single location can be hard to get to and transport food from without sufficient transportation, which most students don’t have. As for the pickup locations, they are helpful for extremely short-term hunger, but fail to provide balanced meals or food that would support you for more than a day or so.

The final shortcoming of these current programs in place are the lack of awareness of them as well as stigmas surrounding the use of them. As for the awareness of these programs, many students do not know about either of these programs. SNAP is not advertised on campus and is only found through the Penn State University website. While the Lion’s Pantry has occasional fund raisers and food drives, there are limited opportunities for them to spread awareness of the program to prospective, new, or current students. This leaves many students feeling as though they are on their own against this struggle. As for those that do know about these programs, many refuse to use them because of stigmas surrounding them. Research by DePauw University found that 25% of students believe that there is a stigma around using food pantries. Since college can be a very intimidating place, these stigmas are often more than enough to prevent people from taking advantage of support programs.

The Need for Change

Food insecurity is a major public health consider and also has deep roots in poverty. While this is often thought of as a government issue, it is the responsibility of far more than them. It is the responsibility of all as community members to support one another in times of need. In the case of Penn State University, it is the responsibility of university leadership to make the proposed policy changes. This policy would also be much more successful if it has the support of all student and staff.

The policy that should be implemented overcomes the causes of food insecurity and reduces its harms on students. The policy would become standardized at the university administration level in the Penn State Housing and Food Services department that manages all student meal plans. The proposal is that all students who suffer from food insecurity are allowed to have three free meals a day at any dining all location. This only includes Penn State owned dining halls, and not franchises. This can easily be implemented by allocating funds to a meal plan account. In order to determine who qualifies for this program, it won’t require a restrictive process like SNAP. Instead, every student will fill out a short survey once per month that describes their needs for support. Those who claim they suffer from food insecurity will be allotted a set number of meals per day based on how many they request.

Some potential setbacks to this policy are an ethical dilemma and financial restrictions. There is an ethical dilemma present as to whether students take advantage of this program by stating they have needs when they in fact do not. While this is the case, this would make up a very small percentage of the student population. The Lion’s Pantry is also run with this same risk, but the Penn State University student body has displayed strong ethics in not taking advantage of that, so these morals are likely transferable. As for heavy burden of financing this policy, there are several ways that this could be done. With a yearly revenue of $220 million, the Housing and Food Services departments would have to raise meal plan prices by 20% to cover those who suffer from food insecurity. This places the burden of cost on the students, which would increase total tuition and fees by $300. This number could be made lower through supplemental donations and fundraising. Overall, this is a relatively small price to pay to end food insecurity in the Penn State community.

This policy overcomes the shortcomings of the current policies in several ways. The first of which is the eligibility aspect. By making the eligibility much more relaxed through a need-based survey it opens the program to everyone who needs it. In terms of accessibility and resources, this new policy is superior. It is accessible all across campus wherever the nearest dining hall is located. It also has greater resources due to the increased funding. Finally, this would have high awareness as the survey is mandatory. It would also reduce stigma entirely as there would be no way of other students knowing who is taking part in this program or what they filled out as their answers on the survey.

This policy solves the causes of this problem entirely. While it is unrealistic to eliminate poverty within its student body, it does eliminate food insecurity. By eliminating the chance for stigma to arise, it provides a comfortable way for all students in need of support to have access to sufficient, health food. This completely reduces the harms of food insecurity as it allows students to focus on their academics and maintain strong social relationships wherever necessary.

Conclusion

In the future Penn State University will likely continue with the Lion’s Pantry, which has helped many students. Yet, it fails to address the needs of all students and to provide a comfortable environment in its operations. The harsh effects of food insecurity within the student body have drastic effects on student health, both physically and mentally, as well as academic performance. Penn State needs to properly support its students and provide the resources necessary for everyone to be successful. The implementation of these policies could pave the way for a nationwide adoption of them, allowing greater support for students suffering from or at risk of facing the harsh effects of food insecurity. A students focus should be on their academics and not on whether they will have enough food for their next meal.

 

Bibliography

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