Sacramento, California– Acorn squash, Spam and baby food lined the shelves on a recent day at a college food pantry in California’s capital, a resource that students who receive federal aid to buy groceries may increasingly have to rely on because Help was forgotten During the government shutdown.
Hundreds of students at Cal State, Sacramento, or Sac State visit the school’s Basic Needs Resource Center each week, where they can choose up to a dozen items on each trip — from fresh produce and meats to toiletries and used clothing.
“It’s a huge blessing,” said Antonette Duff, a first-year psychology student at the university who is enrolled in the federal program. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programwhich were formerly known as food stamps.
More than 3,600 students at the college of about 31,000 receive aid through SNAP, said Emily Topper, the college’s director of crisis assistance and resource learning support. More than 200,000 college students in California and 1.1 million college students nationwide are enrolled in SNAP, according to the state Department of Social Services and the U.S. Government Accountability Office, respectively.
Many students face tuition and housing bills, move between classes, and often work low-paying part-time jobs that make it difficult for them to buy groceries. With rising prices.
SNAP benefits were cut for about 42 million people in the United States at the beginning of November due to the government shutdown. A federal judge last week ordered the Trump administration to fully fund the program, but the US Supreme Court agreed late on Friday. Emergency call to management Temporarily block the request. I’ve been left with mixed messages Students who rely on SNAP Confused, colleges are trying to reduce hunger on campus by spreading awareness about food pantries and distributing free meals.
“It puts students in a really terrible position,” said Mike Hannigan, a student at Greenfield Community College in Massachusetts and an advocate for combating food insecurity on college campuses.
Hannigan receives just under $300 a month from SNAP, but benefits did not arrive at the beginning of November due to government delays.
If SNAP benefits continue to be delayed, he said, he doesn’t know what he’ll do to save on grocery costs. Some students, including community college students who don’t have meal plans, “may have to decide whether or not they’re going to take a class or whether or not they’re going to take an extra shift to try to earn money to be able to feed themselves or their family,” Hannigan said.
Hannigan and other students recently hosted a free farmers market on campus and distributed thousands of pounds of vegetables from local farms. And there was nothing left.
Nuita Hidatsa Sahnish College, a tribal college with about 250 students in North Dakota, hosts a “Soup Tuesday” program to feed students on campus for free. Students also have access to a food pantry and food kits that contain easy-to-prepare meals like chicken Alfredo or chili, and they will soon be able to get gift cards from the school to use at local grocery stores.
Many people who live on tribal lands or in rural areas live in so-called food deserts with limited access to grocery stores, said Twyla Baker, the college’s president. The uncertainty over SNAP caused by political gridlock in Washington adds another layer of difficulty.
“Using the most vulnerable as political pawns is indefensible,” Baker said. “It is unsustainable and harmful to the country as a whole.”
Food insecurity on campus has been on the rise in the past decade, and students have had to make tough choices about how to stretch their wallets to cover necessities, said AJ Shetler, director of the Center for Data Equity at the Center for Health Policy Research at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“Students will first make sure they pay their tuition, books and all that stuff so they can stay enrolled in school,” she said. “Then, they take care of transportation so they can get to school, and then housing, and then food almost becomes this category that you can cut out if you have to, if you don’t have any money after all these other categories.”
Sac State food pantries host pop-up grocery stores on campus twice a month where students can get fresh produce for free, said Taber, the school official. The College may hold events more often if federal food aid continues to be delayed.
At the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque, which estimates that at least 4.5% of students receive SNAP benefits, officials have encouraged people to donate food, money or their time to SNAP. Campus food pantry.
Between 100 and 150 students come to the campus pantry daily, said Lisa Lindquist, director of the LoboRESPECT Advocacy Center. The store is free and open to all students. Some fill baskets with up to 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of food each visit, while others look for a snack to carry them between classes.
The pantry is fed by donations, but there have been times when employees have had to run out to the grocery store to buy more items to keep the shelves stocked.
“It’s not necessarily because there are fewer people donating, it’s because food is going in and out so quickly,” she said. “That tells me anecdotally that there is a great need.”
On a recent trip to the grocery store, July Starr Medina, a senior studying biology at Sac State University, was shocked that she had to spend about $30 just to buy chicken and some seasonings. She has had to make frequent trips to the Basic Needs Resource Center in recent months because her SNAP benefits dropped from $290 to $120 a month this year. Help was reduced after she started working longer hours during the summer, but it did not go up again after she worked less during the fall.
“I don’t think that’s enough at all,” Medina said. “After one week of groceries, that would probably last me two weeks.”
She said the prospect of $120 disappearing was stressful.
“That’s why I was trying to come here to see what I could get,” Medina said outside the center. “Now I need to figure out where I can put money aside for just the essentials.”
The uncertainty is “extremely tough” for students, said Shetler, the UCLA researcher.
“And the number of students who may have to leave school because they need to eat, their grades will go down,” she said. “Their mental health will be damaged by the stress of not being able to eat. This will have a huge impact if they can’t figure out how to fix this and fix it quickly.”
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Susan Montoya Bryan, AP’s chief Southwest correspondent in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.