Time to Change the Usual Response to College Students’ Food Insecurity

Abstract

The pandemic exposed economic vulnerabilities in society. As businesses and college campuses shut down, lines at food pantries and other community food giveaways stretched for miles. College students had to figure out how to obtain food and negotiate other financial obligations. This study examines the food security of college students before and after the initial months of the pandemic, and how strengthening the social safety net stabilized food security. Our recommendations illustrate that the strengthened safety net has a food justice orientation and could be made permanent if there was the political and moral will to do so.