Beyond the Campus Food Pantry

Food insecurity remains a persistent barrier to college completion. While hunger overlaps with other basic needs challenges, including housing insecurity, mental health concerns and transportation barriers, many students still struggle to obtain the food assistance they need.

Although campus food programs distribute millions of meals and serve hundreds of thousands of students each year, many continue to operate with limited staffing, unstable funding streams and growing demand. 

A new report highlights the challenges facing students and campus food assistance programs, calling for greater awareness, improved access and more sustainable institutional support. Released by the Hope Center for Student Basic Needs, Trellis Strategies and Swipe Out Hunger, the research draws on responses from 112,240 students and 299 campus leaders across three surveys. 

Among the findings: 57 percent of food-insecure students surveyed by Trellis accessed neither campus food pantries nor Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, highlighting the disconnect between students’ needs and their use of available resources. Some 76 percent of food-insecure students surveyed by the Hope Center identified insufficient awareness of available resources or eligibility as a barrier to accessing assistance.

Gillian Kiernan, director of programs at Swipe Out Hunger, said that connecting students with campus food assistance remains a challenge, even as institutions expand their outreach efforts.

“The outreach is working, but it’s still very much the thought of ‘I’m not a student that’s hungry enough. I’m not a student who has enough need to go and warrant it,’” Kiernan said. “The messaging that a lot of pantries and a lot of campuses are aiming to do now is that it welcomes every student. There’s not an income requirement with this and it’s not something you have to qualify for.”

Gaps in support: Other barriers to access include limited hours of availability and concerns about taking resources from students with greater needs. Some 31 percent of food-insecure students reported that resources were available only when they were in class or at work, while 29 percent worried about taking assistance from students who might need it more.

Food insecurity also goes hand in hand with other basic needs challenges. According to the Trellis survey, 58 percent of food-insecure students experienced housing insecurity, compared with 19 percent of food-secure students. Similarly, 42 percent of food-insecure students reported symptoms of depression, twice the share of their food-secure peers.

Stacy Priniski, research assistant professor at the Hope Center, said many students who could benefit from campus food pantries are already operating in what she described as “extra-hard mode,” balancing coursework with financial pressures, transportation challenges, childcare responsibilities and more.

“There’s no one thing that makes the student experience the student experience—it’s all interconnected,” Priniski said. “So, of course, in terms of impact on academics, it’s really hard to focus in class if you are thinking about where your next meal is going to come from or how you’re going to get to work on time.”

Meanwhile, campus food-assistance programs face their own challenges in meeting student demand. More than 40 percent of campuses surveyed by Swipe Out Hunger said they rely primarily on donations to fund food-security resources, underscoring the financial uncertainty facing programs that students increasingly depend on.

Kiernan said campus food-assistance programs have become resourceful in operating with limited budgets, recognizing the importance of meeting students’ needs. But Priniski noted that depending heavily on donations makes it difficult for institutions to plan sustainably, particularly when funding can fluctuate from month to month or year to year.

“Pantries really have to make difficult decisions about how they’re going to allocate their resources when they have no idea what their budget is,” Priniski said. “What that ends up resulting in are things like limits on how many times a student can visit the food pantry or how many items they can take when they go there, because the school is really trying to conserve their limited resources.”

Priniski said more consistent funding from states and institutions could help campus food pantries establish a baseline budget, allowing them to plan services more sustainably while continuing to supplement their resources through private donations.

“Food [insecurity] isn’t a campus-only issue,” she said. “We know rising grocery prices are affecting every single person in the country. So as the costs go up for pantries and more students need the pantry, there’s also less money from donors to provide.

“It’s really precarious when that’s your main source of funding, because at a moment when you need to meet a new need, it can be really difficult to make that adjustment when your donors are struggling, too,” she added.

A path forward: The report comes amid uncertainty surrounding federal and state support for student basic needs, including changes to SNAP eligibility and funding that could make it more difficult for students to access food assistance.

To address these challenges, the report outlines four recommendations for colleges and universities to strengthen campus food security efforts and better support student persistence and completion:

1. Build awareness: Even when students know resources are available, stigma and concerns about taking assistance from those with greater needs can discourage them from seeking support. Institutions should work with students, campus staff and surrounding communities to normalize conversations about basic needs insecurity and make clear who can access available resources.
2. Improve access: Colleges should consider the specific barriers students face in accessing food assistance and adjust their programs accordingly. Strategies include expanding pantry hours, offering food lockers or grab-and-go shelves that don’t require staff or volunteers, and engaging faculty in connecting students with resources.
3. Strengthen infrastructure: Institutions should establish dedicated annual funding for basic needs support to ensure programs can operate consistently and meet student demand. Additional investments in staffing and data collection can help reduce administrative burdens, improve services and demonstrate program effectiveness.
4. Embed food security into student success: Colleges should integrate basic needs support into broader student retention strategies through cross-campus coordination and ongoing evaluation of program outcomes. These efforts can help institutions better understand how food insecurity affects students’ ability to complete their degrees.

Kiernan said that while the recommendations offer a shared framework for addressing food insecurity, how institutions put them into practice will depend on their individual circumstances and available resources.

“It really starts with a campus identifying which of these four steps is the most important for them,” she said. “It’s identifying the step that will be most significant to them and starting there, and then being able to touch upon the others with it.”

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