Many students are hungry and eat unhealthily
MANY students at South Africa’s institutions of higher learning are often hungry and, when they do eat, have unhealthy eating habits.
This was revealed at the 2018 Siyaphumelela Conference in Joburg this week, where a number of university students expressed deep concern over the high rate of food insecurity at institutions of higher learning.
Testimonials and presentations from some students revealed that large segments of the student population were struggling because they had little or no food to eat, or eat unhealthily.
Students from Wits University, the University of Pretoria, Nelson Mandela University, the University of the Free State and the Durban University of Technology (DUT), were among those who reported going hungry, and this was especially true for those from poor backgrounds and low quintile schools, and those who were often first-generation students in their families.
A study, conducted through the Food Intervention Programme at the DUT by food and nutrition final-year student Sboniso Ngcobo, found that students in his class were either overweight or underweight.
Ngcobo said that while some students were of normal weight, his research found that their health and behavioural profile were influenced by the availability of food in terms of quality, prices and the availability of money to purchase.
“This clearly demonstrated to me that students have unhealthy eating habits. When I enquired about the reasons for this, most students said they eat what is cheaply available, such as amagwinya (vetkoek), while some said they had no money to buy food at all, so went hungry most of the time,” Ngcobo said.
Higher Education and Training Minister Naledi Pandor highlighted the adverse effect that student funding has on South African students, saying the government has chosen to introduce a full-cost bursary scheme for students whose family income is under R350 000 a year. Students who are inadequately funded experience great challenges with regard to food security, suitable accommodation and the ability to obtain textbooks and other resources.
“These tend to be poor black working-class students, which means we need to develop models of funding and support that address their needs,” Pandor said.
Saide, an educational NGO, said while there were no statistics on exactly how many students were food-insecure, the problem was especially prevalent among those at universities.
Saide said it would further investigate the call for a food security/ sovereignty forum made at the conference as more universities such as Wits and DUT were now harvesting fruit and vegetables on campuses as a food security measure. – African News Agency (ANA)