Hungry Minds: Student Awareness and Use of Food Pantries at 91 Colleges and Universities. Spotlight Report Brief

When students are food insecure, they often encounter adverse health, social, and academic outcomes, including harm to cognitive functions, mental health, and academic performance. Additionally, compared to food secure peers, students struggling with food insecurity are 43 percent less likely to graduate from college with a two- or four-year degree. With recent estimates of food insecurity among postsecondary students as high as 45 percent, many colleges and universities have responded by implementing on-campus food distribution centers (i.e., food pantries or closets) to better assist students struggling to meet their basic needs. These pantries often provide more than food to students, including personal hygiene products, toiletries, diapers, personnel trained to assist applicants with applying to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other benefit programs, and more. Ninety-one of the 104 colleges and universities who participated in Trellis' Fall 2021 Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS) had at least one food pantry available to students. To better understand student awareness and utilization of this resource, this brief examines data from 49,946 students attending a school with one or more food pantries (as of November 1, 2021) and who responded to the corresponding question: "Does your school have a food pantry or food closet on campus?"