Food Pantries Operating at Some Colleges

Paying for College
1

It seems like this should be a part of scholarships and FA–some students are so low on cash that colleges have started food pantries.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/06/pf/college/college-food-pantry/index.html

2

The question is how this comes about. If these students are on FA, shouldn’t they be able to eat. . . ?

Maybe I’m the only one who finds this strange.

3

Not every university meets full need. Even those on FA may not have enough to cover costs and not have food insecurity. The article itself mentions this occurs mostly at public universities.

4

Also, as pointed out in the article, not all students live on campus and have access to a meal plan.

5

I was on financial aid and food stamps as a student. I’d occasionally go to food pantries, too. Doesn’t seem strange at all to me. I worked but my money went towards things like the gap in my aid, insurance, car (lose car = lose jobs = no more college), etc.

Financial aid doesn’t mean you don’t pay anything. Financial aid doesn’t mean everything, including a meal plan, is covered. Financial aid means that you get some help- the level varying based on any number of factors.

6

Another category: Students who get no FA and insufficient support from parents. .

7

I could see how grad students might need it – some of the stipends are very, very low.

8

I was pretty poor in college and the easiest thing to cut from the budget was food. If I’d budgeted $20/wk, and I could get $10 of food from a food pantry, I would have. My roommate’s mother saved us many times with the bags of groceries she brought about once a month (nice toilet paper! mac and cheese, ramen of course). Someone invited me to dinner, I went. I ate twice a week at the sorority house.

I don’t find food banks providing food to students new or surprising. Many of the churches near colleges offer free coffee and donuts on Sundays, spaghetti dinners one night a week, soup and bread near Easter, and yes, some kids are there just for the free food.

Another thing that has changed is that when I was college age, when I worked at a restaurant or even at the college food service, I got a meal. One guy in my dorm worked at a pizza place and brought home a pizza every shift (2 am pizza,yum). That isn’t the case anymore. My daughter has worked places where she got a food item for half price, so she still had to pay for.