Hunger, homelessness rising among college students

Thirty-six percent of college students across 20 states went hungry last year, according to a new report that noted many universities are setting up food pantries and grappling for solutions.

The report published by a lab at the University of Wisconsin this month found that of 43,000 students attending two- and four-year colleges surveyed in 20 states, 36 percent had trouble getting enough to eat. In Massachusetts, over one-third of public campuses reported that hunger and homelessness among students are on the rise, according to a 2016 survey, with 34 percent of campuses reporting an increase in students served by food pantries.

“The cause is the new economics of college,” said Sara Goldrick-Rab, a Temple University sociologist and founder of UW’s HOPE Lab — short for Harvesting Opportunities for Postsecondary Education. “College is expensive. It is more expensive than it has ever been, and there is not as much financial aid as there used to be. Minimum wage has lost a lot of value. College people are trying to compete with part-time work. We find very few students have parents that can help them. We find students helping pay for parents.”

On May 11, the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education with the HOPE Lab will release a report at a conference at Worcester State University detailing the extent of food insecurity, poverty and homelessness among Massachusetts college students.

It will come a day before the HOPE Lab hosts students at Bunker Hill Community College to share their stories. Students can submit their audio stories on the #RealCollege website. Stories will be accepted through Aug. 17 and will be used to inform policymakers and college faculty about challenges students face.

The reality of hunger and homelessness on college campuses is a stark contrast to the popular public image of college students willingly eating ramen noodles with supportive well-off parents, Goldrick-Rab said.

“The public still thinks of places like Harvard and Boston University when they think about students in college,” Goldrick-Rab told the Herald. “Most people don’t attend places like that. Most people attend Bunker Hill Community College or UMass Boston. We need people to understand that today students are not lacking in talent. They are not getting ahead because of reasons beyond their control.”

More than 570 campus food pantries nationwide are registered with the College and University Food Bank Alliance.