Millions of College Students Are Going Hungry [theatlantic.com]

As the costs of college have climbed, some students have gone hungry. When they’ve voiced frustration, they’ve often been ridiculed: “Ramen is cheap,” or “Just eat cereal.”

But the blight of food insecurity among college students is real, and a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan congressional watchdog, highlights the breadth of those affected. There are potentially millions of students at risk of being food insecure, which means they do not have access to nutritious, affordable food, the report says. It is the first time the federal government has acknowledged food insecurity on campus in a significant way. The federal government spends billions of dollars on higher education each year, and this report finds that some students are at risk of dropping out because they cannot eat, although there aren’t good data on just how many.

Existing studies vary in how they describe the scale of the problem. “Nationally representative survey data that would support direct estimates of the prevalence of food insecurity among college students do not exist,” the report says. So the GAO conducted a review of 31 studies that met their criteria—meaning they had been conducted in the United States since 2007 and did not have severe methodological limitations. Twenty-two of those 31 studies estimate that more than 30 percent of students are food insecure.

[For more on this story by ADAM HARRIS, go to https://www.theatlantic.com/ed...udent-hunger/579877/]

Millions of College Students Are Going Hungry [theatlantic.com]

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