In 2024, the Arizona Board of Regents adopted work by College of Global Futures master's students from the sustainable food systems program, reports Sara El-Sayed, assistant research professor in the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, College of Global Futures. The students, part of the program's 2022 cohort, were Janell Bohreer, Kaysey England, Payton Moore and Sarah Williams.
The 2024 Student Food and Housing Insecurity report by ABOR, draws from the efforts of a tri-university work group, which documents the status of students in terms of food and housing insecurity in the three Arizona Universities. Each university has created a Basic Needs Committee to report on the annual outcomes and interventions.
In 2023 the students authored a 72-page report on food insecurity within CGF. The report was based on surveys of their fellow CGF students, both in person and on-line. Their work was cited in full in the appendix of the 2024 ABOR report.
The executive summary of the student report follows:
The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice (Hope Center, 2021) reported nearly 30% of students enrolled at four-year institutions experienced food insecurity during the Fall 2020 semester. College Student Food Insecurity (CSFI) is associated with negative health outcomes such as impaired mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing. While increasingly Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) offer emergency funding or campus support centers to struggling students, the effectiveness of such programs may be impaired due to insufficient awareness or participation. In addition to institutional support, food-insecure students are often referred to local food pantries and government programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). However, barriers to student use of these services and programs similarly compromise their efficacy toward reducing CSFI.
This study surveyed 152 undergraduate and graduate students at Arizona State University’s (ASU) College of Global Futures (CGF) about their experiences with hunger and food insecurity while pursuing their degree. Institutional staff and faculty members were interviewed about the resources available to these students, as well as common themes and experiences they have noticed among students struggling with food access.
Overall, we found that almost 27% of CGF students are experiencing or have experienced food insecurity in the last 12 months. Food insecurity was found more commonly among students who are queer, students who identify as Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), students with disabilities, students aged 20-30 years, and those not living locally on ASU’s campuses. A key takeaway from this synopsis is that students who are already disadvantaged or experiencing difficulties/hardships are more likely to be food insecure.
This report contains an in-depth analysis of the data collected through the survey, institutional staff and faculty points of view on institutional support, and our recommendations for institutional support going forward.
