There is No Excuse for Student Food Insecurity
Forty-one percent of U.S. college students may be food insecure, according to a 2023 study published by Temple University. Many worry about when their next meal will be, perhaps with no breakfast or lunch, or just water all day. Many blame themselves, because not having money in college is simultaneously seen as a joke and a symbol of rugged individualism. But it’s not their fault. Universities don’t offer support, and capital owners fight solutions, while both pursue “efficiency” at the cost of our well-being. To survive, students with limited food access envision a world that the establishment can’t, where strangers meet the needs of others, and where having enough to eat is a possibility. But getting there means political action. It means insisting that food is a right.