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Mass College Hunger Is a Statistical Sham
James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | February 19, 2020 | James Bovard

Posted on 02/19/2020 6:27:31 AM PST by karpov

Some college students are going hungry nowadays, as some collegians have gone hungry since medieval times when students rioted in the streets of Oxford, Cambridge, and Heidelberg. Some college students are not eating meals that nutritionists would approve, as was commonplace with the 25 cent Kraft macaroni and cheese boxes students ate in the 1970s or the ramen noodles students relied on in the 1980s and 1990s. But where did presidential candidate Bernie Sanders get the notion that “nearly half our college students are going hungry?”

From Professor Sara Goldrick-Rab and her team at the Hope Center for College, Community and Justice. According to the Hope Center, 45 percent of college students were “food insecure” in the prior 30 days based on their survey. The 45 percent figure comes from questionnaires that tap sentiments and opinions, not actual food consumption. If someone fears missing a single meal, they can be categorized as “food insecure” regardless of how much they ate. If someone feels they need organic food but can only afford conventional food, they can be labeled “food insecure.” Many media outlets uncritically took the Hope Center report and converted it into a national emergency. A New York Times headline proclaimed: “Nearly Half of College Students Surveyed in a New Report Are Going Hungry.”

Goldrick-Rab recently lamented that “the real story is the federal government hasn’t even bothered to collect nationally representative data” on student hunger. Actually, the feds do have solid data which undermines the Hope Center report.

Based on a thorough Census Bureau national survey, the Agriculture Department reported last September that 5.9 percent of American households were “food insecure” within the past 30 days. The federal survey was far broader and more representative than the Hope Center report.

(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...


TOPICS: Education; Food
KEYWORDS: college; education; sanders
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The link also has an opposing view, "Campus Food Insecurity Matters".
1 posted on 02/19/2020 6:27:31 AM PST by karpov
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To: karpov

Are taxpayers now going to be on the hook for college students’ lunches? We’re already feeding 3 meals a day to some primary school attendees.


2 posted on 02/19/2020 6:31:33 AM PST by IronJack
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To: karpov

In the 1970s, you could go and pick up a $1 hoagie to would solve all your hunger pains for twelve hours.


3 posted on 02/19/2020 6:32:39 AM PST by pepsionice
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To: karpov
the 25 cent Kraft macaroni and cheese boxes students ate in the 1970s

I ate those, plus a dozen eggs a week, and whatever was on sale.

4 posted on 02/19/2020 6:34:36 AM PST by Pollster1 ("Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed")
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To: karpov

We have $1.6T in student loan debt but half of these students are too stupid to feed themselves with some of that money? Yeah, right.


5 posted on 02/19/2020 6:35:26 AM PST by NohSpinZone (First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers)
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To: karpov

Local TV station did a story about a ‘Food Bank’ set up on the SIU (So. Ill. Univ) campus. All of the students shown staving off hunger were fat. Not just overweight, but pear-shaped fat.

You look at pictures of college students in the 50s or 60s and virtually no one is fat.


6 posted on 02/19/2020 6:38:13 AM PST by hanamizu
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To: karpov

Who? All those fat little $hits...?


7 posted on 02/19/2020 6:41:18 AM PST by dakine
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To: karpov

I ate hamburger helper without the hamburger.


8 posted on 02/19/2020 6:44:06 AM PST by MichaelRDanger
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To: hanamizu

The nation’s poor suffer from diseases of obesity not malnutrition! I don’t think lack of access to food is the problem. Same for college students as you pointed out!


9 posted on 02/19/2020 6:49:43 AM PST by Reily
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To: karpov

I’ve heard of college girls dating working guys just to get a good meal on Friday and Saturday.


10 posted on 02/19/2020 6:51:25 AM PST by Blood of Tyrants (A socalist is someone that wants everything you have except your job.)
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To: Pollster1

Ramen noodles and rice. Crackers and peanutbutter make a high calorie meal.


11 posted on 02/19/2020 6:53:10 AM PST by Blood of Tyrants (A socalist is someone that wants everything you have except your job.)
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To: karpov
Currently there is much scientific evidence that intermittent fasting and fasting is actually very beneficial to health. “Missing” a meal or two every day is a healthy practice that increasing numbers of people are choosing to do. Just do a search on YouTube.

If college students with their superior gray matter (as Bloomberg would say) aren’t smart enough to figure out a way to feed themselves cheaply, something resourceful students and families have always done, I can not feel sorry for them.

12 posted on 02/19/2020 7:05:46 AM PST by Nevadan
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To: Pollster1

Wow, you were rich. In 1984-85 at Syracuse we did not splurge on Kraft. We bought store brand Mac n cheese. It would go on sale for $.20/box. Maximum 10 boxes/customer.

Also, spaghetti would go on sale for 3 boxes for $1.00.

You had to save your money for beer. If not, you would end up drinking Old Milwaukee standing around and saying “it just doesn’t get any better than this”


13 posted on 02/19/2020 7:06:34 AM PST by woodbutcher1963
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To: IronJack

Yes, apparently so. So that college dupe, who is getting dual degrees in Socialism and Transgender Fisting, racking up 150k in debt; is wanting you, the American taxpayer, to pay off their 150k all the while feeding them well.


14 posted on 02/19/2020 7:06:43 AM PST by KC_Conspirator
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To: karpov

When college becomes “free,” meals, lodging and books for college students will also become “free.” Paid for by you and me.


15 posted on 02/19/2020 7:07:05 AM PST by I want the USA back (Journalists Take Bits of Reality and Slot them into the Existing Script. -Friedman.)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

When I was a poor college student, one meal was heating up a can of refried beans (in the can, of course) and then smearing them on a flour tortilla warmed on the burner. If there was cheese around, a bit of cheese and a packet of hot sauce from Taco Bell. One would get you by, Two would fill you up.


16 posted on 02/19/2020 7:09:22 AM PST by hanamizu
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To: karpov
Effin’ college students told me, while I was in college paying for it by working, that I should do what they did. They claimed food stamps, welfare, housing assistance, Pell Grants, and more by NOT working. They had no cost for college—ZERO.

Growing up on a farm, I was shocked to find that fellow students were able to take this approach, and my taxes and the tuition I paid subsidized that!

If you willfully do not work, you should have no benefits. And no one should give even a dime to help “underprivileged” students, unless you can hold them personally accountable.

We have inculcated the worst of human nature into people through our Welfare State.

17 posted on 02/19/2020 7:09:26 AM PST by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: karpov

If lazy layabout can get food stamps then it does make some sens that a poor college student in good academic standing should too. I’m one of those Ramen Noodles college types. So I can relate.


18 posted on 02/19/2020 7:11:47 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: karpov

The campus cafeteria was closed on the weekend. I remember a buddy and I pooling our change for a loaf of bread and a pack of bologna. We ate better than some others that weekend. Hey, beer and weed were expensive even back then. Priorities, man!


19 posted on 02/19/2020 7:20:10 AM PST by bk1000 (Banned from Breitbart)
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To: karpov

If there is hunger in colleges and universities, its because colleges and universities charge a fortune. Their prices are outrageous and its a racket. They collude on pricing. So middle class and even lower-upper class families get financially killed by sending their kids to college just to support some six figure salaries for a bunch of useless and subversive professors.


20 posted on 02/19/2020 7:26:49 AM PST by Opinionated Blowhard (When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.)
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