Food insecurity stigma, neoliberalization, and college students in California’s Inland Empire

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes the perspectives of college students toward food insecurity and basic needs campus resources. We draw from interviews with 49 students at one university in California’s Inland Empire conducted in 2019. We found that regardless of personal experience with food insecurity, participants were generally reluctant to access resources or disclose their experiences with the campus community. We propose that this food insecurity stigma operates individually, interactionally, and structurally. We also discuss it as a by-product of neoliberal discourses about students “abusing” the system and needing to pull themselves up by the bootstraps. A response from university stakeholders has been to normalize food insecurity and visibilize resource use. While an important strategy to counteract the impact of food insecurity, we argue that normalization has limits in regard to addressing the root causes of food insecurity. Finally, we also illustrate ways that students themselves resist food insecurity stigma.

KEYWORDS:

• Food insecurity
• stigma
• higher education
• college students
• neoliberalism

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the CSUSB Office of Community Engagement for their support during this project as well as Francisco Villegas and the anonymous reviewers for their generous feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The pandemic reorganized these numbers because of shifts in housing arrangements, enrollment of students, and employment.

2. By different social networks, our goal is not to fall into a deficiency narrative. This paper is influenced by Yosso’s (2005) concept of community cultural wealth and the many forms of capital racialized and other marginalized students draw from. However, we do want to highlight some of the challenges students face given historic exclusion.

3. We use Latinx as an umbrella to refer to these terms.

4. We recognize William is a traditionally gendered male name, and participant identified as female, however, the pseudonym was selected by participant and interviewer together, and although it may cause confusion, it also brings awareness to the fact that names can be gender neutral.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the California State University, San Bernardino Office of Community Engagement.

Notes on contributors

Paloma E. Villegas

Paloma E. Villegas is an immigrant and Associate professor of sociology at California State University San Bernardino. Her research focuses on two interrelated streams 1) Migration, citizenship and borders and 2) Higher education and social inequality. She is also an interdisciplinary artist.

Courtney McGrath

Courtney McGrath graduated from California State University, San Bernardino in 2020 with a B.A. in Sociology.

Arelï Enriquez-Johnson

Arelí Enriquez-Johnson graduated from California State University, San Bernardino in 2021 with a B.A. in Sociology, concentration in Social Services. Currently, she is serving the deaf and hard of hearing community as a freelance American Sign Language Interpreter.

Roxanne Hudgens

Roxanne Hudgens graduated from California State University, San Bernardino in 2020 with a B.A. in Sociology. She currently leads programming for residents living in affordable housing communities which include after-school, adult educational, as well as resources that hope to directly alleviate food insecurity.

Natalie Flores

Natalie Flores graduated from California State University, San Bernardino in 2021 with a B.A. in Sociology.

Rodolfo Felix

Rodolfo Felix graduated from California State University, San Bernardino in 2020 with a B.A. in Sociology. He is currently a Registered Behavioral Technician working with children with autism while completing a Master's degree in Applied Behavioral Analysis.