Post Written By: Ann White
Consider the following scenario. You’re sitting in a lecture hall full of fellow college students eagerly waiting for class to begin. Just as the professor begins to teach, your stomach loudly growls. Many would suggest a simple solution of a quick snack to silence it. However, because you are a food insecure college student, that is a luxury you can’t afford. In fact, you are now stuck figuring out where your next meal will come from. You have to worry about sending in the rent check and electricity bill for the month, on top of paying tuition for the semester. Additionally, you have to work after this class to cover these financial obligations, so there’s no time to eat anyways. You contemplate the possibility that today might be a one-meal day. All of a sudden, the class starts to rise and pack their belongings as you’re snapped back to reality and notice that class has finished. Clearly unable to focus for another class period, you now have to plan to teach yourself the material in your limited free time.
The above situation is a day-to-day struggle for many college students who experience food insecurity, including those at Penn State. One day I had the opportunity to speak with a gracious Pantry client. She shared, “I just heard about The Lion’s Pantry thirty minutes ago and made the trek up here because I needed food for this week.” I replied saying that I was grateful that she discovered our services, but wish she could have known sooner. She responded stating, “I think I would have been more aware of them if there was less of a stigma around food insecurity.” I agreed and then asked her to elaborate on that statement. She hesitantly and emotionally continued, “I work, take many classes, and am in clubs, but people think that I am just being lazy when I can’t afford food when in fact I am trying my hardest.”
Through several other conversations I found that this client is far from the only student experiencing this stigma. I wanted to address the stigma about being food insecure by providing outsiders and myself with opportunities to gain greater perspectives on the significance of food insecurity during college. It is essential that individuals understand the magnitude of the issue of food insecurity and its further influence on other aspects of student’s lives. From my conversations, many students feel stigma because there are many individuals who are not aware that their fellow students can’t afford food. This indicates to me a need for educational initiatives that help others understand food insecurity and its implications. It needs to be not only the mission of The Lion’s Pantry, but also the responsibility of the Penn State community to address food insecurity and the associated stigma as a student issue. If food insecurity is a student issue, it is Penn State University’s issue.
