Confronting
FOOD & DRINK
FOOD INSECURITY Story by Amy Morris | Photos by Jack Royer | Design by Kayla Craig
Imagine not being able to concentrate in your classes because all you can think about is food. Yet, you don’t have the comfort that many other students have in knowing that they can go home and make a hot meal. Many college students may face food insecurity, whether they talk about it openly or not. College has been known to come with a lot of different expenses, and often times some of these costs are prioritized higher than the need for food. “There is a lot of pressure and expectation on college students. It is extremely hard to survive with what is expected of you and what is given to you,” says Kate Doughty, the sustainability and Wildcat Neighborhood Farm manager. “Oftentimes across the board decisions have to be made of ‘what am I buying today? Food or textbook… tuition and rent, or am I spending this money on food?’” The fear of not knowing where your next meal will come from can be a scary situation to find yourself faced with. With college tuition, living fees and other expenses it can be difficult for college students to have enough money left for food. While many college students are scared of gaining the ‘Freshman 15’, other students worry about where they are getting their next meal. According to a survey done by researchers at Temple University and the Wisconsin HOPE Lab in 2018, 36% of university college students say they are food insecure. 20
WINTER 2020 | ISSUE ONE
Learning to Love PUSH
There are many resources on campus that are intended to assist students who deal with food insecurity. Presidents United to Solve Hunger (PUSH) has several pantries across campus for students to grab food from. Students can pick up items at any PUSH pantry location, which are open during building hours, according to PUSH’s website. The PUSH pantries are typically stocked with items such as dry goods that students can take home, according to Doughty. The pantries also sometimes carry items that students can make on campus in a microwave, if they need a hot meal. Doughty adds that if a student doesn’t have somewhere to cook, there are a number of resources provided in these pantries. Peyton Rondeau, junior Nutrition and Food Science major who has faced food insecurity, says that he is thankful for resources such as the PUSH pantries that help students in similar situations. Dining services also has a partnership with PUSH that allows individuals who are not located on campus or in Ellensburg to donate to the Connection Card
program. Students can request emergency funds if they are in a jam and don’t have the immediate funds to support themselves and just need something to eat, according to Doughty. “It is really hard to be a student,” Doughty says. “Students come here for an education and they come here to learn and grow and it is hard to do that if you aren’t able to feed yourself. Having [PUSH] on campus is important because it is the CWU community providing care for the students and that is really important.”
The Cycle of Financial Crisis
CWU has discovered over the years that there is a big group of students that don’t have a safety net, according to Health Sciences Department Chair, Ethan Bergman. Especially when it comes to the end of the quarter or academic year and students start running out of funding, he adds. “[If a student] got sick … and can’t go to their job, their budget falls apart,” Bergman says. “They have to make choices so if we provide some access to food on campus then maybe that alleviates some of their concerns and allows them to eat and do whatever else is necessary to support their lives.” Within many public schools,
