State is studying food insecurity at colleges

Hartford — On a busy day, as many as 300 students, faculty and staff at Manchester Community College will visit the school’s food pantry to help make ends meet with free groceries.

It’s one of about a half-dozen such programs at Connecticut’s state-run community colleges. They have sprung up in recent years to help address what’s become a growing problem of food insecurity, an issue Connecticut lawmakers are hoping to get a better handle on.

“It is a completely different day and age. Our students are dealing with more than any other generation before had to deal with. Every year, our number of visits and the amount of food that we go through is growing exponentially because of the need,” said T.J. Barber, director of student activities at Manchester Community College, where he often works with homeless students living in shelters or tents, refugees, or people escaping domestic violence.

Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont recently signed legislation that requires the University of Connecticut Board of Trustees and the Board of Regents for Higher Education, which oversees the community colleges and state universities, to compile data in October on the number of students who don’t have enough money for consistent access to healthy food.

If a school operates a food pantry or allows an operation on campus, such as the mobile food pantry that visits Three Rivers Community College in Norwich the fourth Tuesday of every month, state officials want to know the number of students served and the number of pounds of food distributed.