Digest No. 07 - January 2020
Student Hunger at Private Institutions
“I guess it’s changed my academic life because if I wasn’t worrying about where I was going to get food, and if it was going to be healthy, and if I had stuff to live off of where I didn’t have [to] work, then I would be able to study more” (p. 59). This quotation reflects the central thesis of this exploratory, qualitative study that examines food insecurity as a reason for disruptions in students’ social and academic experiences at an unnamed, affluent, private institution. Findings showed that some students in this selective university were food-insecure and that this problem interfered with students’ academic trajectories (namely, students who had to work longer hours could not find the time needed to study and perform their best in class) and social experiences (that is, students selected social experiences based more on free food options than actual interest).