‘Hidden hunger’ crisis on SA’s campuses revealed

THERE is an under-reported, under-recognised crisis of “hidden hunger” among students on university campuses throughout South Africa.

This was the key message on the first day of the twoday National Colloquium on Access to Food for Students in South African Tertiary Institutions under way in the city.

Studies of food insecurity were pointing to the conclusion that hunger levels among students were higher than they were in South Africa’s general population, said Dr Stephen Devereux, the South Africa-UK Research Chair for the National Research Foundation.

Devereux delivered a keynote address at the event.

He said current estimates, based on surveys and other research carried out on campuses around the country, showed more than 30% of students were food insecure.

In contrast, 26% of South Africa’s population is food insecure.

“The universities use different methodologies, but the overall picture is that campus food insecurity is much higher than we realised.”

It was a myth that students represented the “elite” and “cannot possibly be food insecure or hungry”.

‘‘In fact students were more likely to be food insecure than others in the population,” he said.

He added that the failures of the beleaguered National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) played a key role in hunger because of long delays with disbursement of funds and the inadequacy of food vouchers.

“It is already August and many students throughout South Africa have not yet received their bursaries.

‘‘Many of the students come from very poor families and really rely on these bursaries.

‘‘This failure to pay has affected them severely,” he said.

Devereux added that hunger had a huge role to play in students’ dropout rate.

“If people are hungry, they cannot concentrate, they become stressed and anxious. A number of these students are working on top of studying, and this, too, affects their academic performance.”

Students were simply unable to afford the high costs of living, including food price inflation, the VAT increase and soaring transport prices.

Many students felt such shame at being hungry that the problem could be underreported.

Devereux said that in South Africa, race was the strongest predictor of student food insecurity, stressing the apartheid legacy had still not been overcome.

“This problem is concentrated among black and coloured students.

‘‘We cannot have poverty reduction and the transformation of South Africa’s economy and society without more black graduates.”

Devereux described how one of the University of the Western Cape (UWC) students he supervised was working as a car guard to pay his bills.

Another lived in an area where there were gangs.

“She is poor and has told me she has to finish her thesis in five months so that she can start working to feed her family.

‘‘A thesis normally takes a year. Many students are suffering from these sort of problems,” he added.

Devereux said there were many initiatives, such as food banks and other projects, being undertaken by universities, NGOS, civil society and the students themselves where needy students could access food.

At UWC, the Gender and Equity Unit ran a food bank that offered food parcels to needy students, but had limited supplies.

Economics and Management Sciences supported students in need, but only reached small numbers.