Feeding hungry students: College students’ experiences using food pantries and successful strategies for implementing on-campus food assistance programs

Abstract

Objective

To examine the components of successful food assistance programs for college students.

Participants

Focus groups conducted during the fall 2019 semester included undergraduate students who accessed a food assistance program on campus (n = 26). Key informant interviews were conducted with professionals working with campus-based food assistance programs (n = 5).

Methods

Student insight regarding experiences on campus-based food assistance programs was gathered. Key informant interviews were conducted to gain an understanding of strategies put in place to alleviate food insecurity among college students.

Results

Emerging focus group themes included financial stressors, eating strategies, struggling to feed dependents, utilization of university-based food assistance programs, and SNAP enrollment. Key informant interviews revealed six strategies of effective food assistance programs: increasing access, securing funding, procurement/distribution of healthy foods, partnerships, outreach, and decreasing stigmatization.

Conclusions

A “mission driven” approach has the potential to meet the complex needs of food insecure college students.

Keywords:

• College students
• food assistance
• food insecurity
• food access
• eating behaviors

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of United State of America and received approval from the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy.

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.

Table 9. Emerging strengths and weaknesses.