Incidence and Correlates of Food Insecurity Among Wisconsin Undergraduates

• In Event: When Poverty Goes to College: Housing and Food Insecurity Among Undergraduates

Abstract

The cost of attending college has risen substantially over the past 30 years, and there is growing evidence that students are having difficulty paying the price of completing degrees. For some students, access to nutritious and safe food on a daily basis is compromised. This study examines the incidence of food insecurity, defined by the United States Department of Agriculture as the inability to obtain safe and nutritious food at any time, among undergraduates in Wisconsin using two surveys of financial aid recipients. In these two surveys, we explore the economic conditions of students’ lives, examining whether the adequacy of their financial aid, transportation, and support from family members is associated with food insecurity.

National datasets on education do not ask about food insecurity. In order to examine incidence and correlates of food insecurity we instead rely on two surveys of Wisconsin students. The first was fielded in 2008-2009 and includes information from 3,000 Pell Grant recipients attending 42 public colleges and universities. The second was fielded in 2014-2015 and includes information from 1,565 financial aid recipients (all within 200% of Pell eligibility) attending 10 public and private colleges and universities.

Preliminary results from the first survey indicate that more than 25 percent of the students experienced at least one form of food insecurity. Almost seven percent said that they had gone without eating for a whole day due to a lack of food, 21 percent said that they cut the size of their meals or skipped them, and 21 percent felt that they ate less food than they should. Students attending two-year colleges faced lower costs of attendance in Wisconsin but were more likely to experience food insecurity and more likely to not eat for a whole day, compared to their counterparts at four-year colleges (9% vs. 6%, respectively). Those attending college in Milwaukee were more likely than those attending elsewhere in the state to experience food insecurity (35% vs. 25%, respectively). Results from the second survey will be analyzed in the fall and will be included in the full paper.

These results illuminate the emerging prevalence of food insecurity among public postsecondary students. As such, this research is part of an emergent literature on poverty among college students. A related paper examines students’ housing affordability and conditions using the same first survey (Broton, Frank, & Goldrick-Rab, 2014). The survey asked students if they were ever unable to pay their rent or utilities during the past year. One-quarter of two-year college students indicated that were unable to pay, while 12% of four-year college students indicated they were ever unable to pay rent or utilities in the past 12 months. This research has far-reaching implications for financial aid, public assistance, and postsecondary educational policy. Policies aimed at addressing these issues promise to help students towards college completion.

Authors

• Minhtuyen Mai, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Emily Brunjes Colo, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Wick Sloane, Bunker Hill Community College