Retriever Essentials believes that often, the food insecurity UMBC students experience is the tip of the iceberg-- if the first sacrifice is textbooks before food, imagine the tough choices that could follow. An article published in The Atlantic last week by Adam Harris details the new findings by the Government Accountability Office (GAO- a nonpartisan congressional watchdog), and congressional stakeholder's reactions and plans for advocacy for our vulnerable students. Find some excerpts below:
-
GAO found that there are nearly 1 million college students at risk of becoming food insecure, marking 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.
- “[The
report] put it very clearly for us that we can see that especially first-time
students, first-generation students, students who are raising children, single
parents, face increasing obstacles to be able to complete that critical college
degree,” Senator Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate’s education
committee says.
- Middle-class
students, those who are “too rich for Pell and too poor to afford college,”
struggle as well. And they may not be as likely to use things such as the food
pantry.
- Murray says that
addressing food insecurity is one of her top priorities as Congress negotiates
a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, the major federal law governing
colleges and universities. “Often, we just talk about the tuition costs and dealing
with that,” she says. “It has to be broader than that— [it has to be] all of
the costs that come to a student as they try to complete college, including
food and housing.”
-
Sara
Goldrick-Rab, a higher-education professor at Temple University and a leading
scholar on campus hunger, put it more bluntly. The report shows “that food
insecurity is a college-completion issue,” she says. “We’re undermining our
federal investment in financial aid by not paying attention to this. We have to
stop pretending like living expenses are not educational expenses.”
Keep an eye out in the next few weeks for how you can help support Retriever Essentials as we begin taking steps toward institutionalization and securing sustainable support for our students years to come.