Location
Pattillo Student Center, 2nd Floor
Start Date
29-4-2015 10:00 AM
End Date
29-4-2015 4:00 PM
Description
With the rising cost of tuition, college students have difficult decisions to make between school, work, housing, food, utilities, medical bills, to name a few. For example, according to the Huffington Post, there are over 58,000 homeless college students in the United States (Ashtari, 2014). Colleges have a task of keep their students safe, which is reiterated in their student codes and university policies. Yet, one of the aspects rarely taken into consideration is the students’ access to food, which is a safety concern. While most colleges offer meal plans, there are issues with the upfront expense of meal plans and guessing how much food one will eat the entire semester. In addition, students who are hungry or worrying about where their next meal is going to come from have worse academic outcomes (Jyotiet al. 2005). Colleges need to have resources to assist students both in and out of the classroom. Hunger Jacks, a student organization at Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA), partnered up with Student Government and Sprout at SFA Community Gardens to address these concerns resulting in two resources being developed on campus: Food for Thought food pantry and Fresh Food Fridays.
Addressing Campus Food Issues through Student Organization Collaborations
Pattillo Student Center, 2nd Floor
With the rising cost of tuition, college students have difficult decisions to make between school, work, housing, food, utilities, medical bills, to name a few. For example, according to the Huffington Post, there are over 58,000 homeless college students in the United States (Ashtari, 2014). Colleges have a task of keep their students safe, which is reiterated in their student codes and university policies. Yet, one of the aspects rarely taken into consideration is the students’ access to food, which is a safety concern. While most colleges offer meal plans, there are issues with the upfront expense of meal plans and guessing how much food one will eat the entire semester. In addition, students who are hungry or worrying about where their next meal is going to come from have worse academic outcomes (Jyotiet al. 2005). Colleges need to have resources to assist students both in and out of the classroom. Hunger Jacks, a student organization at Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA), partnered up with Student Government and Sprout at SFA Community Gardens to address these concerns resulting in two resources being developed on campus: Food for Thought food pantry and Fresh Food Fridays.