Think college students are privileged? Nearly a third are hungry and homeless

KC Star ^ | April 5, 2018 | MARÁ ROSE WILLIAMS

[EdnaMode]

Sarah Barrett didn't need a grand study to tell her a bunch of students on Kansas State University's campus had been going without food.

As an assistant dean of students, she had heard enough of them talk about choosing books or housing costs over food to know that the university needed to do something to help its hungry students.

K-State students are not alone. The problem of college students' inability to afford food is common on campuses across the country.

According to a first-of-its-kind survey of two- and four-year private and public schools, 36 percent of students on college campuses in the U.S. do not get enough to eat.

On Wednesday afternoon just after the noon lunch hour, the UMKC Kangaroo Pantry opened its doors to a short line of students needing food. Katie Garey, who manages the pantry, and a student volunteer were busy stuffing plastic bags with nonperishable food items requested by the handful of students who filled out order forms that day.

"We are pretty busy," Garey said. "At the end of the semester, we start recognizing that students no longer have food on their meal plans or maybe their financial aid has run out or they have given up a job so they can study, so they no longer have that income."

And that lost income could also impact housing. Nearly as many of those who are food insecure don't have secure housing. The U.S. Department of Education describes the homeless as "lacking fixed, regular, adequate housing," which includes those living in shelters, hotels, cars, tents or "couch surfing" at friends’ houses.

[EdnaMode]

They are homeless and starving, yet they can afford going to college?

[camle]

I call bs.

[Quality_Not_Quantity]

So misleading, this headline. Not anywhere close to that many ate ‘homeless’ and I’ll just bet that a lot of the kids showing up at the food bank are just cheap freeloaders.

[ConservativeMind]

Eff them all!

Work your way through, like I did! It may delay your degree, but college is “optional.”

And DON’T GO ON WELFARE. I knew people who didn’t pay a dime of anything and graduated on time.

Eliminate all welfare!

[JennysCool]

Whenever you see “could” or “maybe” in an article like this, you know you’re looking at fake news.

[deport]

From a couple days ago, different source....

The hidden crisis on college campuses: 36 percent of students don’t have enough to eat ^

193 comments

[chris37]

Good.

I wish they all were.

[SunTzuWu]

Spent their food money on weed and beer.

[Troublemaker]

Oh please...at our daughter’s university, they had to scale back some of the hours at various food places on campus as they couldn’t get enough kids to work there. They sent out multiple pleas for student help/work.

[OttawaFreeper]

This was an issue back when I was a student in the early 1990s. A lot due to some who maybe could have taken that year off to earn that good bit more money for housing and food. I can remember at least one of my profs telling me that they knew people who took 5-6 years to finish an undergrad to take that sort of time off and avoid getting into debt and having enough money while in school.

[Terry Mross]

The situation is dire yet a “handful” of students showed up to get food.

Here’s an idea. Do away with tenure and stop raising tuition and fees every year so they can keep giving themselves raises.

[Menehune56]

Perhaps they were used to getting breakfast and lunch (and maybe dinner) courtesy of their high schools and thought that would continue in college. When you feed something it becomes dependent.

[upsdriver]

Hungry? Homeless? GET A JOB!! We live in the richest country in the history of the world. I cannot feel sorry for any of them.

[Migraine]

They never heard of Ramen noodles? Hellzbellz!

[ptsal]

Are they hungry enough to get a part-time job?

[I-ambush]

I was never homeless in college, but I was always hungry. What teenage/young adult guy isn’t?

[BBell]

BS.

Another thing, a lot of young folks do not know how to eat cheap.

[Chickensoup]

I discovered early that hunger was a motivator.

[ealgeone]

So misleading, this headline. Not anywhere close to that many ate ‘homeless’ and I’ll just bet that a lot of the kids showing up at the food bank are just cheap freeloaders.

Had a number of friends in college who would hit happy hour for the free food. Order one drink and eat for hours.

[LegendHasIt]

This is the second article in two days that I have seen bewailing the plight of poor starving college ‘children’, and using about the same numbers.

Maybe if college tuitions hadn’t skyrocketed due to greed and incompetence, and the government getting into the student loan business;

Maybe if Illegal Aliens weren’t given subsidized tuitions in so many states;

Maybe if each semester at even a mediocre school didn’t cost about the same as a nice car, and a four year degree cost about the same as a nice house;

Maybe if they figured out what it was going to cost them ahead of time and either make proper preparations to meet those costs, or to set their sights lower and maybe attend a nearby community college and stay with mom and/or dad;

Or maybe become an apprentice and learn a useful trade while earning some money;

Or maybe spending the liquor, dope, piercing and tattoo budget on food and shelter instead...