Food Insecurity in Maine Higher Education

Abstract

In 2017–2018, University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Maine Campus Compact conducted a statewide analysis to assess the extent and subsequent effects of food and housing insecurity within the college student population. A total of 26 higher education institutions (community colleges and private and public four-year colleges and universities) throughout the state of Maine received surveys to investigate food and housing insecurity. This study reports on the findings from the 1,704 completed surveys from 24 of those campuses. We found significant food insecurity among respondents. The results demonstrate how food insecurity relates to institutional, geographic, and student characteristics. We discuss the implications for higher education policy across Maine and practices at individual institutions. secure), to deficits in quantity and quality of the foods consumed (e.g., more low-nutrient, high-calorie processed foods), to the most extreme insecurity, a decrease in the quantity of food consumed (Gaines et al. 2014). Housing insecurity is categorized under a web of challenges, such as the inability to pay rent or utilities or the need to move frequently (Goldrick-Rab et al. 2017). Much of the nation has experienced recovery and relief since the Great Recession officially ended in 2009, but Maine has seen continued high rates of poverty, and hunger continues to harm state residents.2 With the 2020 pandemic and the attendant job losses, this trend is likely to continue. Studies assessing food and housing insecurity within individual college campus communities and other regional locations provide examples of the spectrum of severity, with rates of food and housing insecurity ranging from 14 percent to 56 percent. The University of Alabama, a large public university, identified 14 percent of students as food insecure (Gaines et al. 2014). Results from a large landgrant university in New Hampshire reported approximately 25.2 percent of students as being food insecure, with 17.7 percent of students reporting low food security, and 7.5 percent reporting very low food security (Davidson and Morell 2018). In 2015, an online survey of 4,000 students at ten community colleges across seven states revealed that 52 percent of students were food insecure, 20 percent qualified as hungry, and 52 percent were housing insecure, including 31 percent who were homeless (Goldrick-Rab et al. 2015). Similarly, a later survey among community college students from 70 campuses estimated that 56 percent of respondents were food insecure (low or very low food insecure) (Goldrick-Rab et al. 2017). Food and housing insecurity affects students in several ways. Lack of basic needs, such as sufficient amounts of nutritious foods or a secure location to sleep, directly hinders students’ ability to study, or may indirectly affect their study time if they work long hours to be able to afford food and housing as well as their tuition and fees. Students who are at risk for food and housing insecurity have self-reported physical health problems and depression symptoms; students who experience food and housing insecurity are at greater risk of not completing their studies. Such health consequences represent a mechanism by which food and housing insecurity can undermine academic outcomes including GPA, retention, and on-time graduation, and lead to permanent withdrawal from enrollment (Payne-Sturges et al. 2017). Students often take the burden of food and housing insecurity on themselves either through additional debt or skimping on basic necessities. For some students, particularly first-generation students, inadequate understanding of college prices and financial aid options can lead to failure to apply for financial aid or aversion to taking on educational loans (Perna 2006). Paying direct college costs like tuition and fees first, however, can leave little money for food and housing (Gaines et al. 2014). Many students have come to depend on the use of credit cards to ameliorate this financial gap. But that short-term debt can add up quickly, and the inability to meet those obligations may have a longer-term adverse impact on future finances and further increase the risk of food insecurity (Gaines et al. 2014). Moreover, students who are more economically vulnerable are less likely to ask for help or use available social support systems (Rule and Jack 2018). When they do get to the point of seeking assistance, their circumstances may be more severe and recovery more difficult, which may lead them to drop out of school. Maine is an important site for examining the impact of food and housing insecurity in higher education for a number of reasons. Although the traditional image of college students is of younger individuals from modestly affluent families, demographic shifts have led to corresponding shifts in student characteristics (Bruening et al. 2017). Nontraditional students, encompassing a wide spectrum of socioeconomic statuses, ages, and household and family dynamics, are entering postsecondary institutions to improve their employment opportunities. As one of the demographically oldest states in the nation, Maine has a large share of nontraditional students. The increasing number of low-income and nontraditional students attending college may lead to heightened food insecurity issues among students (the proportion of undergraduate Students often take the burden of food and housing insecurity on themselves either through additional debt or skimping on basic necessities. MAINE POLICY REVIEW • Vol. 30, No. 1 • 2021 o.12 FOOD INSECURITY