Food and Housing Insecurity Among College Students

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZUsjhlRFnw I watched “(Un)Privileged: The Cost of Being Poor at An Elite Institution” on YouTube. It was interesting to hear from these low-income students about their experiences attending an elite school and being surrounded by people who come from much wealthier backgrounds. It was sad to hear about their guilt and conflicted feelings about being away at school and living with things they did not have before. It was also sad to hear about their feelings of not fitting in and their struggles. I found various connections between it and my project and things we have discussed in class.  A man interviewed in the film, Angel Pérez, was the Vice President of Enrollment and Student Success at Trinity College. He discussed how first-generation college students face various issues that their wealthier peers may not face, including a lack of knowledge about the process due to their parents not attending college. This reminds me of  Armstrong and Hamil...

  California Community Colleges #Real College Survey  by Sara Goldrick-Rab, Christine Baker-Smith, Vanessa Coca, and Elizabeth Looker in collaboration with the Hope Center Citation Goldrick-Rab, Sara et al. California Community Colleges #RealCollege Survey . The Hope Center, 2019, https://hope4college.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/RealCollege-CCCCO-Report.pdf . Summary This report reveals the prevalence and impact of food and housing insecurity among almost 40,000 students attending 57 community colleges in California in the fall of 2016 and 2018. It includes graphs of the results and reveals that around half of respondents were food insecure in the prior 30 days, 60% of respondents were housing insecure in the previous year, and 19% of respondents were homeless in the previous year. It explains that there is often an overlap between food and housing insecurity and that there are various factors that can increase someone’s risk of food and/or housing insecurity, such as race,...

Research Questions: Why are students experiencing food and housing insecurity?  How do these issues impact students’ education and wellbeing?  How are these issues being addressed and what more can be done?   My argument/thesis: The increasing costs of college, food, and housing; decreasing financial aid; and lack of acknowledgement and recognition of the issue of food and housing insecurity has caused students to be unable to cover the costs and unable to access stable and acceptable food and housing, resulting in worsened academic performance and increased health problems. Colleges (and student bodies) and the government need to better recognize students’ needs, share the information, and find solutions to resolve the issue of unmet needs by creating and expanding programs and educating students on the resources available to them.   In “Poverty Is Largely Invisible Among College Students,” Sara Goldrick-Rab, an expert in the field of basic needs insecurity in highe...

A case I used to help illustrate my argument and explain my frame is the presence of Single Stop sites on college campuses. This specific case helps show a current effort being made to support students experiencing basic needs insecurity. Single Stop sites help students and their families learn about and access federal benefits and services. The services available include, but are not limited to, food stamps, health insurance, WIC, housing and utility assistance, and financial counseling. It connects with my frame because this program, and others like it, help students meet their physiological needs, making it so that they fulfill the bottom level of Maslow’s Hierarchy, allowing them to achieve higher needs. An aspect of my argument is that schools and the government should be doing more, such as creating or expanding programs, to help more students experiencing food and/or housing insecurity meet their basic needs. This supports my argument by revealing how this program truly benef...

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs I am using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to help me analyze and explain my project. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a concept in psychology proposed by psychologist Abraham Maslow that categorizes needs into a pyramid shape, with our most basic needs (our physiological needs) at the bottom. We must fulfill a level of need before we can focus on pursuing and fulfilling higher needs. Using this concept as a framework will be useful to my project because it can show how students who are experiencing food and/or housing insecurity are not meeting their physiological needs, making it so that it is harder (or impossible) for them to focus on higher needs, like security, love and belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization. Their experience with food and/or housing insecurity would negatively impact their academic performance because they are too busy focusing on meeting their basic needs and surviving. Various sources within my Works Cited connect with this fr...

  Shown above are the logo of Single Stop and a pie chart of the benefits and services they have provided or helped students gain access to "Clearing the Path to a Brighter Future: Addressing Barriers to Community College Access and Success" by Sara Goldrick-Rab, Katharine Broton, and Christin Gates in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and prepared for the Association of Community College Trustees and Single Stop USA Citation Goldrick-Rab, Sara, et al. “Clearing the Path to a Brighter Future: Addressing Barriers to Community College Access and Success.” ACCT , ACCT, 10 June 2013, www.acct.org/files/Press%20Media%20Etc/ACCT_Single_Stop_USA_White_Paper_Final_06-04-2013.pdf . Summary The authors discuss barriers that prevent students from accessing and succeeding in community colleges. They focus on Single Stop sites as a way to assist students in need and help them overcome the barriers that impact their lives and education. They mention what Single Stops a...