As the holidays approach, today’s colleges and universities are increasingly marked by overflowing donation bins containing canned goods collected by every student organization and faculty department to stock the campus food pantry. While that generosity of spirit is appreciated, we think it’s time to say thanks and ask how those collective energies could be harnessed to fight students’ hunger, rather than just feed them.
Over the last decade the food pantry became a higher education trend. In many ways, it’s a sign of progress. Prior to 2015 it was difficult to find much formal acknowledgement of student food insecurity, let alone services to help. When a couple of student affairs practitioners created the College and University Food Bank Alliance in 2012, it had just 10 members. By 2020 the organization had ballooned to more than 700 members, and in 2021 it became part of Swipe Out Hunger, a national nonprofit.
Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab
While campus pantries can ease students’ immediate worries about where they will find their next meals (a component of food insecurity) and may promote a sense of belonging on campus, they struggle to even really reduce hunger, much less beyond that. At far too many institutions, the food pantry remains the only source of support for students needing help, but suffers from limited funding, haphazard hours, and insufficient food. Even on campuses with additional services, a pantry’s success is typically measured in terms of the numbers of students using it or the amount of food distributed. That means a pantry could look like it is doing a great job even though the same 50 students are filling bags repeatedly, without addressing why those students are returning over and over.
In Reinventing Food Banks and Pantries, Dr. Katie S. Martin argues for change in food pantries writ large, moving beyond a focus on food distribution with new models that center empathy, equity, and systems reform. The same is needed in higher education, where standard food pantries should be de-centered in basic needs strategies in favor of a focus on proactive coordinated health-centered programming that lowers students’ living expenses, connects them not only to financial aid but also to safety net and employment supports, and buffers them against financial shortfalls that derail their education and drive them to pantries in the first place.
Imagine if the collective energies in the ubiquitous Thanksgiving food drives shifted in that direction, as students, staff, faculty, and administrators focused on revising campus policies and/or advocating for improved public programs? What if the success of pantries and other basic needs services was measured by how students’ opportunities for and experiences in education were changed? Basic needs navigators in a dozen or so states are moving in this direction as they track students’ connections to on and off-campus support programs and begin to measure outcomes. There are a growing number of navigators working in basic needs centers around the country, and some evidence that they are moving the needle (though many more evaluations are needed). But they have a long way to go when it comes to efficiently creating closed loops between the identification of students’ need and receipt of services, and require significant technological, data, and professional development resources to make that work effective.
It is, admittedly, a difficult time to imagine brighter futures for student support, as in many parts of the country higher education is under attack. But that is all the more reason to recognize that hope is a strategy. When students feel hopeful, they are more likely to persist and succeed in school. Seeing their colleges respond to calls for greater affordability with shelves of donated food, and passing fellow students having to turn to that food rather than eating in the cafeteria with classmates, often does not inspire hope. But interacting with faculty who ask after your well-being and/or join you to advocate at the state capital does.
Hopeful signs for a future beyond campus food pantries abound. Take the Basic Needs Hubs at Portland Community College, which show the power of embracing a mutual aid framework. Rooted in the principles of community support and trauma-informed care, the hubs’ peer resource navigators integrate resources from across the campus and surrounding community and partner with students from the Family and Human Services department to provide one-stop support. Those local resources include College Housing Northwest, which offers deeply discounted housing and even free apartments for students experiencing homelessness. This is critical, as housing is more effective than food at reducing food insecurity. PCC’s hubs also provide a paid work-based learning opportunity for the navigators while empowering them to be agents of change. 
Paige Swanson
Money is more effective than food at reducing food insecurity, which is why connecting eligible students to SNAP is essential. But if they have to focus on providing food, especially to students who are not eligible for safety net programs, institutions should prioritize helping students afford to eat regularly on campus, as this enhances graduation rates. The strongest evidence to date comes from a study at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston, where leaders have also capped meal prices to maximize affordability. It’s why Compton College’s campus boasts a beautiful market featuring healthy prepared meals. Every student, professor, and staffer passing by can come in to enjoy one free meal a day provided via a partnership with Everytable. They can also shop at the campus farmer’s market, which offers hot, ready-to-eat bites as well as fresh fruits and vegetables. While similar markets can be found at many institutions, with some accepting SNAP, Compton goes further. All students, including dual enrolled high school students, can pick up $20 to help them shop for items of their choice.
As one of the most powerful sectors in the nation, it is especially important that higher education leaders commit to going far beyond charity to demand real systems change. Institutions bearing the increasingly popular “hunger-free campus” moniker should loudly and clearly advocate for living wages, affordable housing (and on-campus meals), and quality health care to make life more affordable for students and employees. (If the federal or state governments will not help at the moment, then focus on partnerships with mayors, nonprofits, and industry.) Institutional strategic plans and budgets should strive to offer a culture of continuous support from the moment a student starts school, with comprehensive and integrated basic needs systems that include financial aid, employment services, health supports, and case managers. All frontline employees should be trained in techniques that enhance the wellbeing of students and coached to sustain that work (Believe in Students is offering courses to help). Focusing everyone on campus in this direction clarifies intentions and pushes them to match students’ individual strengths with meaningful programming that recognizes what is at stake in their college pathways.
So, this holiday season, let us thank and celebrate the hardworking people who champion campus food pantries while also supporting their efforts with critical conversations about where to take that work next. By setting clear goals for effective practices, measuring what truly matters, advocating for policy change, and creating cultures of care, we can have hunger-free campuses year-round.
Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab is author of Paying the Price, College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream, senior fellow at Education Northwest, adjunct professor at the Community College of Philadelphia, and Founder of Believe in Students. Paige Swanson is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Student Basic Needs Coalition, where Goldrick-Rab serves on the board.
