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

Bracken, Shea. “Penn State Shares Results of Food and Housing Needs Survey.” Penn State University. ​Penn State News, 2022. https://www.psu.edu/news/campus-life/story/penn-state-shares-results-food-and-housing-needs-survey/#:~:text=The%20survey%20confirmed%20that%20a,universities%20nationwide%20based%20on%20the.

“Guide to Public Assistance Programs.” Penn State Student Affairs, n.d. https://studentaffairs.psu.edu/support-safety-conduct/basic-needs-support/guide-public-assistance-programs.

Lion’s Pantry Executive Team. “Lion’s Pantry Participates in Giving Tuesday 2022.” The Lion’s Pantry, n.d. https://thelionspantry.psu.edu/2022/11/17/lions_pantry_giving_tuesday_2022/#:~:text=The%20Lion’s%20Pantry%20serves%20every,and%20household%20products%20in%202021.

Lion’s Pantry Executive Team. “What Is a Lion’s Pantry Manager? .” The Lion’s Pantry, n.d. https://thelionspantry.psu.edu/blog/#:~:text=Created%20in%202014%20to%20address,household%20supplies%20%E2%80%94%20no%20questions%20asked.

McCoy, Maureen. “Food Insecurity on College Campuses: The Invisible Epidemic.” HealthAffairs, January 31, 2022. https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/forefront.20220127.264905.

Neff, Olivia. “Food Insecurity Prevalence on College Campuses, the Stigma Associated with Food Pantries and the Best Practices Moving Forward .” DePauw University , November 2011. https://scholarship.depauw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=studentresearchother.

“Penn State Mission Statement: Penn State Values.” Penn State Mission Statement | Penn State Values | Penn State, n.d. https://www.psu.edu/this-is-penn-state/mission-and-values/.

Storch, Rebecca. “Breaking down Penn State’s Campus Meal Plan: Where Does All the Money Go and Why Are Oreos over $6.” The Daily Collegian, October 31, 2017. https://www.collegian.psu.edu/news/campus/breaking-down-penn-states-campus-meal-plan-where-does-all-the-money-go-and-why/article_65a43f40-bdc5-11e7-88d5-6bd8137864a0.html.

“Why College Hunger.” Swipe Out Hunger, January 13, 2023. https://www.swipehunger.org/whycollegehunger/.

Wolfson, Julia A, Travertine Garcia, and Cindy W Leung. “Food Insecurity Is Associated with Depression, Anxiety, and Stress: Evidence from the Early Days of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States.” U.S. National Library of Medicine, February 25, 2021. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7929913/#:~:text=For%20example%2C%20compared%20to%20food,7.78%E2%80%9315.30)%20more%20likely%20to.

Woodring, Olivia. “Penn State Community Makes Initiatives for the ‘Prevalent Issue’ of Food and Housing Insecurities.” The Daily Collegian, June 13, 2022. https://www.collegian.psu.edu/news/penn-state-community-makes-initiatives-for-the-prevalent-issue-of-food-and-housing-insecurities/article_9a5a0a7a-eaa8-11ec-a22f-b3f823855900.html#:~:text=Lion’s%20Pantry%20on%20Sunday%2C%20May,2022%20in%20University%20Park%2C%20Pa.&text=Among%204%2Dyear%20college%20students,5%20Board%20of%20Trustees%20meeting.

 

Note: I have yet to add in-text citations (the bibliography is still included at the bottom) as well as an graphics.

 

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 qualify based on 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 meals a day at any dining all location. 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

Bracken, Shea. “Penn State Shares Results of Food and Housing Needs Survey.” Penn State University. ​Penn State News, 2022. https://www.psu.edu/news/campus-life/story/penn-state-shares-results-food-and-housing-needs-survey/#:~:text=The%20survey%20confirmed%20that%20a,universities%20nationwide%20based%20on%20the.

“Guide to Public Assistance Programs.” Penn State Student Affairs, n.d. https://studentaffairs.psu.edu/support-safety-conduct/basic-needs-support/guide-public-assistance-programs.

Lion’s Pantry Executive Team. “Lion’s Pantry Participates in Giving Tuesday 2022.” The Lion’s Pantry, n.d. https://thelionspantry.psu.edu/2022/11/17/lions_pantry_giving_tuesday_2022/#:~:text=The%20Lion’s%20Pantry%20serves%20every,and%20household%20products%20in%202021.

Lion’s Pantry Executive Team. “What Is a Lion’s Pantry Manager? .” The Lion’s Pantry, n.d. https://thelionspantry.psu.edu/blog/#:~:text=Created%20in%202014%20to%20address,household%20supplies%20%E2%80%94%20no%20questions%20asked.

McCoy, Maureen. “Food Insecurity on College Campuses: The Invisible Epidemic.” HealthAffairs, January 31, 2022. https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/forefront.20220127.264905.

Neff, Olivia. “Food Insecurity Prevalence on College Campuses, the Stigma Associated with Food Pantries and the Best Practices Moving Forward .” DePauw University , November 2011. https://scholarship.depauw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=studentresearchother.

“Penn State Mission Statement: Penn State Values.” Penn State Mission Statement | Penn State Values | Penn State, n.d. https://www.psu.edu/this-is-penn-state/mission-and-values/.

Storch, Rebecca. “Breaking down Penn State’s Campus Meal Plan: Where Does All the Money Go and Why Are Oreos over $6.” The Daily Collegian, October 31, 2017. https://www.collegian.psu.edu/news/campus/breaking-down-penn-states-campus-meal-plan-where-does-all-the-money-go-and-why/article_65a43f40-bdc5-11e7-88d5-6bd8137864a0.html.

“Why College Hunger.” Swipe Out Hunger, January 13, 2023. https://www.swipehunger.org/whycollegehunger/.

Wolfson, Julia A, Travertine Garcia, and Cindy W Leung. “Food Insecurity Is Associated with Depression, Anxiety, and Stress: Evidence from the Early Days of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States.” U.S. National Library of Medicine, February 25, 2021. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7929913/#:~:text=For%20example%2C%20compared%20to%20food,7.78%E2%80%9315.30)%20more%20likely%20to.

Woodring, Olivia. “Penn State Community Makes Initiatives for the ‘Prevalent Issue’ of Food and Housing Insecurities.” The Daily Collegian, June 13, 2022. https://www.collegian.psu.edu/news/penn-state-community-makes-initiatives-for-the-prevalent-issue-of-food-and-housing-insecurities/article_9a5a0a7a-eaa8-11ec-a22f-b3f823855900.html#:~:text=Lion’s%20Pantry%20on%20Sunday%2C%20May,2022%20in%20University%20Park%2C%20Pa.&text=Among%204%2Dyear%20college%20students,5%20Board%20of%20Trustees%20meeting.

 

Overall, I think that the deliberation went very well for my group. Throughout the process, we worked well as a team. We worked well together when it came to brainstorming different problems and potential approaches. Our effective delegation within the group allowed us to complete the work on time with a quality product. As for the deliberation itself, I think that we did a great job. We did a lot of planning before the deliberation so that everything went smoothly and followed a schedule to ensure that the deliberation would be the correct amount of time. Something unique that my group did was put the criteria for deliberation on the chalkboard. This allowed us to reference the criteria throughout the deliberation, which kept all of the discussion on track and relevant. The questions that we asked the class were almost all relevant and brought forward new ideas to discuss. We also provided some input and clarification on our end, which was backed up by research that didn’t necessarily make it into the videos. We chose a controversial and high-stakes topic, which was homelessness in Philadelphia. This led to very contrasting opinions in the class. Our approaches catered to different perspectives, allowing for a more well-rounded deliberation where everyone was included. Being such a controversial issue, as a group I think we did a great job maintaining a civil discussion and having ideas be judged by the criteria and not solely by personal opinions. Although it went well overall, I think there are a few things that we could have improved upon. One is by defining the problem’s causes more clearly. We did a great job addressing the symptoms of homelessness and ending the cycle of homelessness, but we overlooked explaining the root causes in our introduction video. While these causes were explained by us and explored by the class in our deliberation, it would have been helpful to have them in the initial video. Another aspect we could’ve improved on is by being more specific in our approaches. We were very specific in some parts, such as explaining what taxes would increase and by how much, but we generalized who would qualify for these programs. For example, we said that the homeless would have access to work training programs, whereas we should have directly stated that they would also have specialized treatment if they had a disability, children, drug abuse, etc. This meant we initially came across as being potentially ableist since some thought that these groups of people weren’t going to be included until we explained that they were key parts of our approach. As a group we wanted to help as many people as possible and not exclude anyone, so we should not have assumed that people would automatically think that they would be included and explicitly stated so in the video portion.

The issue surrounding a lack of clean drinking water in the United States is multi-dimensional. It cannot be defined as a single source, nor can a single solution resolve the core of the problem as well as its symptoms. In my last blog, I discussed the government’s role in the problem as well as some policies and actions that they could implement to take more responsibility in resolving it. While this would be a great start, there is much more to this problem. The socioeconomic status of individuals as well as areas plays a huge role in this issue. This is a deeply rooted issue in society that disproportionately impacts certain groups with some having more severe problems from this civic issue. In turn, this makes the issue more challenging to solve, given that one solution will affect people differently based on their socioeconomic status in relation to this problem.

The first part of this problem is the high cost of water, regardless of whether that be tap water or bottled water. Many believe that water should be a human right and it couldn’t be further from that in reality. Water is a necessity when it comes to basic survival, yet 14 million households couldn’t afford to pay their water bill during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was due to the 40% price increase in the last decade along with inflation and layoffs. This issue has large effects on people with low income, forcing them to choose between having drinking water and other necessities, such as heating or air conditioning. Throughout the pandemic, this also led to people being unable to wash their hands and practice regular hygiene since they had either no water or a limited supply of clean water (Sanders 2020). People should not have to wake up and worry if they have enough water to wash their hands or to make it through the day without being ill or dehydrated. A 2019 study by Medical News Today discovered that households without access to clean drinking water were more likely to be in lower-income areas or people of color (Kingsland 2021). For one of the richest countries in the world, especially one that prides itself on working toward equality, this reflects very poorly on them. This is rooted in the capitalistic societies as well as the historical background of the United States, making the solution more complicated. Nonetheless, this should be a priority, especially considering the wealth of this nation. Having clean water removes underlying stress on families, allows many health problems to be avoided, and empowers people to be free of the burden of expensive water bills and anxiety surrounding where they will get water from.

As discussed on the government side of the United States, capitalism has a core place in society and economics. This is even more prominent when it comes to clean drinking water and its relationship to the socioeconomic status of individuals and groups within the United States. Capitalism has allowed private companies to charge extortionately high rates for water, some of which isn’t even clean. While these large corporations rake in record profits, people are forced to go without an essential aspect of life. There is little regulation preventing these companies from taking advantage of people by increasing rates. This has become increasingly present during the pandemic as it has allowed them to use that as justification for high prices. People with low disposable income have been left to decide between food and water as well as go without other necessities. Corporate greed should not be allowed to play such a large role in restricting people in the lower class of the United States from having access to clean drinking water. This responsibility should be placed heavily on these corporations but not all of it can be. Corporations should think more ethically about their decisions to increase prices, but their actions aren’t illogical. They are given the freedom to make heavy profits so their taking advantage of this flaw in the system is not entirely their fault. The United States government and the regulation of businesses need to be revisited. In an attempt to maintain strong relations with these corporations, the United States government has sacrificed the rights of the lower class to give these corporations the freedom they desire. This is unacceptable and more needs to be done to change this injustice.

While this problem is severe and would take years to solve if, at all possible, two key components can be addressed to alleviate some of the resulting issues. The first part of this issue would involve government investing in these low-income areas. Providing a stipend to residents that would be used toward people paying their water bill would allow for much more people to have access to this resource. The government could also invest in greater infrastructure for water and potentially make sourcing the water free in certain areas that would otherwise find it difficult to afford. Another component of this solution would be to increase penalties for corporations that are practicing price gauging or charge unfairly high prices. Doing so would make clean drinking water much more affordable to the public, while still allowing corporations to make a profit and be successful

While the government as well as socioeconomic status plays a massive role in this issue and is at the core of the issue. With this being the case, there is substantial reason to be optimistic about the direction we are moving in as a nation. In the next blog, I will discuss some of the remaining issues at the core of this issue as well as some potential solutions that could mitigate some of the harmful effects.

Government is just one aspect of this problem that affects millions of people every year nationwide. In the next few blogs, I will be discussing the other root causes and effects of this problem.

 

Works Cited

Kingsland, James. “The Impact of Water Poverty in the United States.” Medical News Today, MediLexicon International, 22 Apr. 2021, www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/how-water-poverty-impacts-public-health-in-the-us#Americas-hidden-water-crisis.

Sanders, Bernie. “Clean Water Is a Human Right. in America It’s More a Profit Machine | Bernie Sanders and Brenda Lawrence.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 23 June 2020, www.theguardian.com/us-news/commentisfree/2020/jun/23/clean-water-should-be-an-american-human-right-not-a-government-profit-machine.