A Broadened Understanding of University Student Food Security: Undergraduate and Graduate Student Food Utilization and Access at a Big Ten University

ABSTRACT

Focusing on food access, existing college studies find rates of low or very low food security to range from 10–75%, with little understanding of variation among undergraduate and graduate students. A greater understanding of food security including access and utilization for both undergraduate and graduate students will help address its adverse effects on the health and academic outcomes of students. We evaluate food security at a large midwestern university, identifying characteristics related to both access and utilization. This approach allows for the identification of solutions tailored to undergraduate and graduate students living on- and off-campus who lack food security.

KEYWORDS:

• Food security
• college students
• food access
• food utilization
• health outcomes
• wellbeing
• solutions

Acknowledgments

We would also like to thank the MSU Office of the Provost for facilitating this project by providing us with access to MSU students.

Disclosure Statement

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

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/19320248.2022.2101411

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the MSU College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Undergraduate Research Funding Program.