Amanda* doesn’t buy groceries.
Although she is not stressed for money, she said it is more of a matter of convenience. Instead, she would much rather spend money on books or clothes than on food.
“I think it’s a little weird because it’s kind of a waste that I’m spending money on something that will disappear,” Amanda said.
That’s not to say she doesn’t eat.
“I have a very donating family who worries about me a lot,” she said. “Obviously, I’m not starving.”
Her parents help out, pitching in food through mail or when they visit. Still, Amanda said she regularly skips lunch and scarfs down something instant for dinner.
The third-year University of Idaho student has become used to life like this.
“I’ll wake up in the morning and I’ll have Eggos that my mom bought me when she was here for a weekend, then skip lunch, and for dinner I’ll scrounge and see what I have like ramen noodles or — it’s depressing — taquitos. Anything like that,” she said.
Students like Amanda, whose financial situation, fiscal choices or other life conditions prevent them from accessing the food and nutrition they need, are common across college campuses, including UI.
In 2017, a survey on college financial wellness conducted by Ohio State University found 37.6 percent of UI students are food insecure based on United States Department of Agriculture’s metrics, which aligns with the survey’s findings for other four-year public institutions.
The results are also consistent with another report on food insecurity’s prevalence on college campuses. In April, a national survey released by the advocacy group HOPE Lab found 36 percent of university students were food insecure in the 30 days preceding the report.
Under the surface
While the prevalence of food insecurity has been studied for decades by the USDA, there are barriers to talking about the issue and accessing resources to mitigate it. One sizeable hurdle, experts and students noted, is an expectation that college students eat poorly.
“That’s not a healthy choice. There’s all kinds of reasons as to why that’s not a good idea for students to have poor eating be normalized,” said Helen Brown, a public health nutrition professor at UI.
Madie Brown, a graduate student, researches food insecurity on UI’s campus. Madie’s questions for her thesis work included a six-question survey, which found the 37.6 percent figure.
The categories of food security used in Madie’s survey were based on the USDA metrics, which include four levels: high, marginal, low and very low levels of food security.
The figure is the sum of respondents who were considered to have low or very low food security. The remainder, 62.4 percent of respondents, were considered to have high or marginal food security.
“We knew it (food insecurity) was on campus, but not to the extent that it was,” said UI Campus Dietitian Mindy Rice.
Rice, who hosts cooking classes and grocery store tours, said Madie’s work involves bringing together different groups working toward food security on campus.
“Everybody has been trying to do something, but we’re doing it separately. We need to get together as a group,” Rice said.
Experts and advocates recognized food security could be caused by a multitude of factors — but they say the largest variable is a lack of education about healthy eating and cooking options. Financial stressors on college students, with rising tuition and stagnant wages also present challenges.
A’maurie Duckwitz, a second-year UI student studying political science, doesn’t have a steady revenue during the school year. A few weeks ago, she took five loaves of breads from the collection of donated perishables at the UI Women’s Center, which came from a recent partnership with Food Not Bombs of the Palouse.
Duckwitz, who said she has a financially “well off” family pays her rent, said she felt some guilt over taking the bread, as there are others who are less fortunate than her.
But at the same moment, she calls herself and her roommates a group of “broke college students,” in part because of mismanaging money.
“Do I have enough to cover bills and food for the rest of the year? I’m not sure that I do,” she said.
Luckily, she said, one of their friends’ mother dropped off a bunch of food for them to share. Duckwitz felt bad sharing all the food, but then again, she said, it’s part of “the broke college experience.”
“I think there is this common experience of just you rely on other people or you spot each other,” she said. “If your friend can’t pay for dinner, you help them out because you know what that’s like. Or you like all cook together and try to meal prep.”
Amanda, also without a stable income, knows her diet isn’t the best — that she’s likely lacking necessary nutrients and energy.
But since she has no steady revenue during the school year — in part because of an unpaid internship — Amanda said she will continue to not buy groceries for the foreseeable future to make the most of her summer earnings.
She doesn’t tell her friends much about her diet.
“It’s kind of interesting to think that I’m spending the money on books that I would be for groceries,” she said. “Again — school is more important.”
Taking action
A new coalition of community members focused on food security has formed with individuals from Vandal Health Education and the UI Center for Volunteerism and Social Action, whose employees manage the network of campus pantries called Vandal Food Pantry.
Although the coalition first began meeting in October, Madie said she hopes it can help normalize the need for help.
“People have a preconception that college students need to suffer — that is the problem,” Madie said.
She said this normalization contributes to an unhealthy cycle.
“What I want to create with this campaign is to just say, ‘Let’s normalize the need, let’s destigmatize the need and let’s denormalize society’s response to this issue. And let’s create our own solutions,’” Madie said.
Helen said identifying a more complete picture of which student populations are most at-risk for food insecurity is a central goal of the coalition.
Though they have some idea already with the transition between students’ first and second years presenting a particular barrier. But she said more work needs to be done to identify more at-risk populations
Helen said another key goal of the coalition is to identify what a food secure UI campus looks like, but before that, they must address structural questions of which groups the effort to ameliorate food insecurity should be included. Regardless, the effort must include students.
Story by Kyle Pfannenstiel
Design by Pepe Maciel
Graphic by Riley Helal