Bring war on hunger to college campuses

There are surely hungry members of Young Republican Clubs on campuses across the nation.

Consider the subject of college and food, and your thoughts might drift to mystery meat on the cafeteria menu, learning to cook eggs, grilled cheese and Ramen noodles and the morning wonders of leftover pizza.

Or perhaps just projections of projectiles in “Animal House.”

For all the rhetoric over trying to ensure appropriate choices are available in high school cafeterias, such concerns tend to be overlooked when it comes to college campuses.

If anything, many college students could use even more guidance, as most are navigating their personal universes solo for the first time. Food can easily become secondary to academics, and to financial demands that can leave them hungry for years after graduation day.

U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, DConn., has cited data that 30 percent of University of Connecticut students skip meals to save money, and that nearly a quarter of them are concerned with food insecurity.

Other data suggests that while 13 percent of Americans fall into the category of food insecure, that figure is tripled on college campuses.

One traditional solution, food stamps, continues to

draw a dividing line between most Democrats and Republicans. There are surely hungry members of Young Republican Clubs on campuses across the nation.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy has reliably defended food stamps, known these days as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). Six years ago, he lived on food stamps for five days, resulting in headaches from caffeine withdrawal and a diet of PB&J sandwiches and bananas that resulted in a loss of six pounds in four days.

“Hungry students don’t learn,” said Hayes, a former history teacher.

So she and Murphy have introduced the “Closing the College Hunger Gap Act.”

The bill aims to direct the Department of Education to educate students in need about SNAP. The concept is simple. Questions would be added to an existing student survey about how students pay for college (National Postsecondary Student Aid Study).

Murphy’s reasoning is that if colleges have to report on hungry students, they will be motivated to feed them.

The bill faces more obstacles than it should. The war on poverty is moving in the wrong direction on campuses. Students from homes hovering around the poverty line rose from 28 percent in 1996 to 39 percent in 2016.

Even more alarming is the rate of homelessness among students. A survey of 2,000 Connecticut students conducted by Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system and the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness indicated 15 percent experienced homelessness or housing instability. Legislation shouldn’t be required to motivate colleges to take better care of their students. In the event these efforts fall short, colleges can still prioritize offering available solutions to the sometimes harsh realities of college life.

Feeding college students should never be a divisive issue. Still, there will always be some politicians who point to better uses for the $68 billion spent on SNAP.

Try telling that to someone who is hungry.