Questions to Consider
- Prosser utilizes different types of sources throughout her essay. What types of sources does she use, and how do they appeal to the reader?
- The author introduces a potential counterargument to the proposed solution in the later part of this essay. How does Prosser go about disproving this argument? How does Prosser utilize source material to aid in her rebuttal?
- In the reflection, Prosser mentions how her project changed after conducting research on her initial topic. In what way do you think adjusting the topic during the writing process may have improved this essay?
A Note From the Instructor—Rena Perez
I am very impressed with Kayla’s meaningful engagement with the research process and thoughtful reflection on what she learned through this research and writing process. Her research on an initial topic of lowering costs of healthy food on college campuses led her to discover this larger issue of food insecurity that is impacting a significant percentage of Miami students, inspiring her to shift to finding a solution to this problem. In this essay, she makes a strong argument for two outside programs that the university could partner with to support students who are food insecure. To me, one of the strengths of Kayla’s writing is how she takes the reader through several causes and effects of this issue for college students, demonstrating the severity of the problem in this particular community. She also integrates sources with a variety of different lenses for looking at this issue, including local statistics about food insecurity among Miami students and in Butler County. Overall, Kayla’s work offers an example of research as a recursive and generative process, as well as how to synthesize information learned from this research to establish the importance of an issue and advocate for a specific solution.
Addressing Food Insecurity: SNAP Benefits and the Swipe Out Hunger Program
Miami University is an academic institution and a home to many students from all around the world. Miami strives to create a safe, inclusive, and overall accommodating environment for all attendees. However, one pressing issue still remains: food insecurity. Defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), food insecurity is “a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life.” Many students face this issue every day throughout their college careers. There are many different factors that can contribute to food insecurity, such as financial restraints, accessibility, quality, and perception, among others. There are a variety of effects that food insecurity can have on the individuals experiencing it that can include physiological, psychological, social, or even academic ramifications. Although Miami University has made efforts to try to fix this issue on campus, there is more that can be done considering the percentage of students still struggling. Shavon Anderson, a writer for Miami University’s news and communications, revealed that “Data from last year’s student health survey revealed that about 20% of students experienced food insecurity at some point, and a portion of those students experienced it on a regular basis.” This number is much higher than the 12.8% food insecurity rate across Butler County, as estimated by Feeding America. In order to help solve the problem of food insecurity on Miami University’s Oxford campus, I suggest aiding and encouraging college students to enroll for SNAP benefits and integrating the Swipe Out Hunger program into the community.
In order to fully understand how to begin solving this problem, we must first investigate the main causes of food insecurity on college campuses. One of the biggest causes is finances. Students already have a ton of their money delegated to payments such as housing, tuition, transportation, personal expenses, and other college costs, such as books and supplies. College students either do not have the extra money to spend on the higher-priced, nutritious foods that they should be eating, or they do not have money for food at all. Students end up opting for unhealthy, cheaper options or skipping meals altogether, which is hurting them in all aspects of their health. A study that includes the perspectives of students from a variety of different colleges, conducted by Jaapna Dhillon and associates, states: “The cost of foods on campus was consistently and most frequently brought up as having a major influence on eating choices. Participants perceived nutritious options as more expensive than less nutritious options, which often led them to opt for the latter.” Having a poor diet and eating habits due to expenses is just another form of food insecurity, considering that those actions will not suffice for leading an active, healthy life. This lack of nutrition has a negative impact on the health and bodies of the students. This is a leading factor for why college students are said to gain the “Freshman 15” upon entering college. Students are either eating unhealthy food, or their lack of eating causes weight gain, since their bodies are trying to store as much as they can from those limited meals.
Stigmas surrounding food insecurity also pose another issue for students. Students often feel ashamed and embarrassed for struggling with this issue. This shame causes them to shy away from reaching out for help. Heather Stringer, a scientific journalist researching food insecurity on college campuses, cited two studies that highlight the shame and stigmas mentioned above. Stringer also discusses one study performed by psychologist Yu-Wei Wang, Ph.D., research director of the University of Maryland Counseling Center, and explains the following results: “‘I also found that there was a lot of shame attached to being food insecure, and as a result, many of them don’t feel comfortable asking for help,’ says Wang. ‘Some students shared that they avoided the campus food pantry because they were afraid of being judged or thought it was for people with even greater needs.’” Stringer also discusses another study, performed by Heather Bullock, Ph.D., a psychology professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, which had similar results: “‘Students, for example, felt that they should be able to make ends meet on their own and shouldn’t have to use nutrition assistance programs,’ Bullock says. ‘We need to reduce the stigma around food insecurity and increase the accessibility of these programs.’” These studies are important to mention, because they show that students have reservations about getting help even though they need it. There needs to be an easier way for students to get this help with food insecurity, without having to deal with the associated stigma.
Food insecurity has many different impacts on college students, the most important of which are psychological. Results from a study conducted to investigate these psychological impacts revealed the emerging themes students felt as a result of food insecurity. These themes are as follows:
Stress of food insecurity interfering with daily life, fear of disappointing family, jealousy or resentment of students in more stable food and financial situations, inability to develop meaningful social relationships, sadness from reflecting on food insecurity, feeling hopeless or undeserving of help, and frustration and anger at the larger institution for not providing enough support. (Meza, et al.)
Food insecurity adds more unneeded stressors to students’ lives. Students already have to worry about typical college stressors, such as assignments, due dates, exams, and studying. They should not also have to stress about getting basic human needs such as food.
These psychological themes lead to the next point about social effects. Students struggle to make connections and maintain relationships while dealing with food insecurity. As stated before, students have a hard time making connections because of resentment of others’ financial or food stability, or they have trouble maintaining relationships due to feelings of embarrassment, failure, or an inability to participate in social events. Heather Stringer wrote an article outlining the psychological and social impacts of food insecurity. She included a quote from Ryan Pickering, who is a psychologist also studying this topic who has a personal connection with it. He personally experienced food insecurity and talked about how it impacted him socially:
“Being hungry affected my concentration, and there were also social costs to being low income,” says Pickering, who earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maine at Farmington in 2008 and his psychology doctorate from the University of Maine in Orono in 2014. “I felt isolated when I couldn’t go out to eat with friends, and the loneliness became exponentially worse when I couldn’t go to the cafeteria.” He hid these difficulties from family members to avoid burdening them, which further intensified the sense of isolation. (Stringer)
Not only did Pickering struggle to maintain his friendships since he could not afford to go out to eat, which is a common social outing among friends, but he also avoided his family because he felt ashamed that he could not make ends meet on his own. This took a huge toll on him mentally. The resulting isolation can be detrimental to students, as it is important to have human connections and feelings of belonging. These mental and social impacts are very concerning considering what students are already going through, without this struggle being added.
Pickering also mentioned how being low-income and food-insecure affected his ability to concentrate. This is true for many other college students as well. There is a huge academic gap between those students who are fortunate enough not to struggle with food insecurity versus those who do. An article written by EduMed staff, who have committed 30 years to creating high-quality, educational content, highlighted this achievement gap. Students who deal with food insecurity are less likely to be successful and have an extremely high risk of falling into this achievement gap. Some students are even at risk of not graduating because of this. These students have lower GPAs and lower overall academic performance. They also develop serious mental health problems, which further their academic shortcomings. By working harder to solve food insecurity, students will be more successful overall, have healthier relationships, and be more mentally and financially stable.
One solution that would be beneficial to promote at Miami University is SNAP benefits. The Leadership Conference Education fund helps to define SNAP benefits: “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), provide free and/or reduced-cost meals to college students, and reevaluate the assessment of financial need for students to include the full costs of attending school, including food” (Lemus). After being accepted into the SNAP program, the student would receive a monthly balance on a benefits card from the government, based on their income or the number of class hours taken at the school (over what the college considers to be a “half-time” student). This card can be used anywhere that accepts SNAP benefits, which includes grocery stores, bodegas, and farmers’ markets. These benefits have shown to improve food insecurity issues in many communities. This would greatly help students gain access to food necessities, without being financially burdened.
Many people would argue that SNAP benefits for students would not be a feasible solution considering that there are many factors that go into getting these benefits. Some of the difficulties of implementing SNAP benefits include students meeting the necessary requirements in order to be eligible for the benefits or getting the government on board with being more lenient with these requirements. The article “Food Insecurity On College Campuses: The Invisible Epidemic” addresses these limitations and how they can be resolved. The authors state:
The COVID-19 pandemic brought the issue of food insecurity into sharp focus resulting in a temporary expansion in SNAP eligibility for college students as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021. The expansion allows students who are eligible for state or federally financed work study or those with an expected family contribution of zero to receive benefits. These new changes will make approximately six million more students eligible for SNAP who didn’t qualify previously. (McCoy)
These changes have expanded the reach of the SNAP benefits to many students and allowed them access to government assistance. As for the concern that this will only be temporary or that the government will not be on board with giving benefits to all college students, the article also addresses this point by highlighting two bills that are underway as of May 2021. These bills plan to make the SNAP eligibility expansions that were put in place during the pandemic era permanent. The bills are currently backed by hunger and poverty relief organizations such as Feeding America, which increases their chances of being passed by the government. The post-pandemic eligibility expansions becoming permanent will provide millions more students the opportunity to receive the help that they desperately need. Miami University comes into play with the SNAP benefits by encouraging students to apply for them and providing enrollment assistance for those who plan to apply. Miami can also advocate for a SNAP benefits card that works in conjunction with the Miami ID cards, meaning that wherever the Miami ID card works for students to purchase food items, the benefits card will also work.
Even though Miami University already has an excellent food pantry established in the community, there is still more that needs to be done. As previously mentioned in an above quote, many students do not want to go to a food pantry because they feel embarrassed, or they feel like they should not have to rely on outside resources to make ends meet. These feelings might deter students who do need assistance from going, because they are afraid of how it might be perceived by others. Because of this fear, the community would greatly benefit from partnering with a non-profit organization called Swipe Out Hunger. They give a bit of background about their organization on their website: “Swipe Out Hunger is a national nonprofit committed to ending college student hunger. We work with colleges and universities to design and implement a range of anti-hunger programs across our 400+ campus network.” Swipe Out Hunger has plenty of experience working with other colleges to resolve the same issue, so it would be a very qualified organization to aid Miami in its fight against on-campus hunger.
There are a variety of ways that Swipe Out Hunger works to aid students in their food struggles. They work closely with the campus to help them create well-developed food security programs for students to utilize such as The Swipe Drive, campus food pantries, and SNAP enrollment opportunities. The Swipe Drive is the main program that Swipe Out Hunger integrates into the campus, and it allows students to donate meals to each other in times of need. Since we already have a food pantry in Miami, they can work in conjunction with them to make it even better and more accessible to students who shy away from it. They also will be able to integrate their knowledge of SNAP benefits and enrollment opportunities, which will make it easier for Miami to encourage students to apply, as well as help students feel less overwhelmed by the application process.
Beyond just partnering with campuses to help solve this problem, Swipe Out Hunger also advocates for changes in legislation on the state level and supports current legislation that is working to combat student hunger. For example, they wrote and passed the original “Hunger-Free Campus Bill” which, according to Swipe Out Hunger, “sends funding to public colleges who are addressing student hunger on campus.” Lastly, they encourage student leadership and empowerment by offering training and resource sharing to ensure that students are at the forefront of the efforts the programs are trying to work towards. This aspect of the program would help reduce the stigma and shamefulness students associate with food insecurity, since it will allow the students to still feel as though they are solving the issue without relying on others. It is a great way to take the pressure off of individual students by getting everyone involved. Miami would greatly benefit from implementing this solution, as it is a great program to help students in their fight against food insecurity.
In conclusion, aiding and encouraging college students to enroll for SNAP benefits and integrating the Swipe Out Hunger program into the community are two great solutions to help combat food insecurity. There are no costs associated with either of the proposed solutions, so Miami will easily be able to implement them for the students. The SNAP benefits and the Swipe Out Hunger program will be able to work together, as Swipe Out Hunger specializes in SNAP benefits. They will work closely with the university and allow the students to get heavily involved. This will especially be helpful to those students who do not want to feel like they are relying on someone or something else to solve the problem for them. They will be able to take initiative with this program and work to end food insecurity for themselves and others in the community.
Works Cited
Anderson, Shavon. “New grant expands fresh food access to Miami and Oxford Communities.” Miami University. 21 May 2019. https://miamioh.edu/news/top-stories/2019/05/grant-expands-fresh-food-access-to-miami-and-oxford.html. Accessed April 9, 2022.
Coleman-Jensen, A. “Definitions of Food Security.” USDA ERS—Definitions of Food Security. 2021. https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-u-s/definitions-of-food-security/. Accessed 3 May 2022.
Dhillon, Jaapna, et al. “We Don’t Have a Lot of Healthy Options: Food Environment Perceptions of First-Year, Minority College Students Attending a Food Desert Campus.” Nutrients, vol. 11, no. 4, 2019, p. 816, https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11040816.
Lemus, Kathrine. “We Need to Address Food Insecurity for College Students in America.” The Leadership Conference Education Fund, 30 Jan. 2019, https://civilrights.org/edfund/resource/we-need-to-address-food-insecurity-for-college-students-in-america/.
McCoy, Maureen, et al. “Food Insecurity on College Campuses: The Invisible Epidemic: Health Affairs Forefront.” Health Affairs, 31 Jan. 2022, https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/forefront.20220127.264905.
Meza, Anthony, et al. “‘It’s a Feeling That One Is Not Worth Food’: A Qualitative Study Exploring the Psychosocial Experience and Academic Consequences of Food Insecurity among College Students.” Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Elsevier, 13 Dec. 2018, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212267218306932?casa_token=Mw9gtQsXnRwAAAAA%3AXEMopxSSwP6p59uGO6JLQikdQLz_Uz8DKC2E7gYa29awkGWVr1tyzGp5IRImVVv2prb1LMOI.
Staff, Edumed. “Food Insecurity in College: Fighting Student Hunger on Campus.” EduMed, www.edumed.org, 8 Nov. 2021, https://www.edumed.org/resources/food-insecurity-in-college/.
Stringer, Heather. “Reducing Hunger on Campus.” Monitor on Psychology, American Psychological Association, 1 Mar. 2020, https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/03/news-hunger.
Sumekh, R. (Ed.). “Solutions to college food insecurity.” Swipe Out Hunger. 10 December 2021. https://www.swipehunger.org/ourwork/ Accessed 9 April 2022.
Writer’s Reflection
Dear Reader,
My experience as a writer for this essay was very interesting. I was able to develop my skills in finding a multitude of sources, including scholarly articles, to help back up the argument I was trying to make. This writing process differed from my previous experiences, because I began with a different topic than what I ended up writing about. I started by trying to find a solution to reduce the cost of healthy foods on college campuses. That is even what the first few of the sources I gathered were about. However, throughout my searches for this topic, I discovered the term food insecurity. It piqued my interest, and I decided to look deeper into it. I found out that food insecurity not only encompassed my original idea, but it also brought about broader, important issues that I could work to find a solution for. I became much more interested in the research and writing process after shifting the focus of my essay. That was the biggest change I made to my essay along the way, and the rest flowed easily from there.
Instructor feedback and peer review were a big help in my writing process. They allowed me to see my essay from a different reader’s perspective. I could see what needed to be changed, made more clear, or reorganized in the essay. Because of this feedback, I was able to go back and add more detail, as well as fine-tune parts of my essay to make them clearer for the reader.
I thought the most challenging part of the essay originally was finding enough relevant sources. This was because, as mentioned before, I had a different topic, which was much narrower than the one I ended up writing about. It was difficult to come up with ideas for solutions to my original topic. After switching topics, everything came together smoothly.
If I returned to this project at a later date, I could improve the essay by adding more personalized examples of the impacts food insecurity has on college students. I could possibly add a current college student’s perspective on how it affects their daily life and if they think my proposed solutions would work. I think this could make the argument for the solutions I chose even more convincing.
My understanding of informational literacy expanded greatly in my search for credible sources. I learned different techniques to determine credibility. I was also able to expand my writing past the typical 5 paragraph essay, which is the typical format for writing assignments. This project has also helped me to understand how rhetoric plays a role in argumentative writing. I could play on different emotions, logistics, and the trust of the audience through my writing to make my argument stronger.
I will use the knowledge I gained about locating credible sources and using rhetorical strategies in my future writing assignments to make my essays more effective. I will also be able to use these skills in my future as a veterinarian, as I will most likely have to write professional papers or even read different studies. Not only being able to use these skills but also recognizing them will be important for me as a writer and a reader in the future.