Major
Nursing
Advisor
López, Dahianna
Advisor Department
Nursing, College of
Date
5-2022
Keywords
Food Insecurity; Charitable Food Services; College Students
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Abstract
Hunger and food insecurity exist across millions of households in the United States. In 2020, an estimated 1 in 8 Americans were food insecure. The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as a lack of consistent access to enough food required for an individual to maintain an active, healthy life. Food insecurity is associated with an increased prevalence of chronic health conditions and directly affects a student’s ability to learn. Approximately 30% of college students obtaining an education in the United States are currently food insecure. Universities across the country are addressing student hunger via the establishment of on-campus food pantries. Such charitable food services provide meals to those in need, potentially allowing people to consume the appropriate amount of calories each day. Today, there are at least 700 food pantries on United States college campuses. Although the number of these intervention sites has increased, little is known about student awareness of existing food pantries and how often the available resources are utilized. The goal of this project was to discover whether or not students at the University of Rhode Island were familiar with their school’s food pantry, Rhody Outpost. This research paper analyzes responses from URI students who participated in a survey on food insecurity and charitable food services. 118 individuals completed the questionnaire, and only about 33% of them knew about their university’s food pantry. Moreover, none of the respondents said they have ever used the free services offered by Rhody Outpost and only nine had donated goods to the organization this past year. More investigation may be needed to conclude why college food pantries are so often overlooked, nonetheless this project provides the public with some information on student awareness of these charitable food services.