More college students turn to food banks

[EV_Ares]

SEATTLE (AP) — Just blocks from the University of Washington, a line of people shuffle toward a food pantry, awaiting handouts such as milk and bread.
For years, the small University District pantry has offered help to the working poor and single parents in this neighborhood of campus rentals. Now rising food prices are bringing another group: Struggling college students.

"Right now, with things the way they are, a lot of students just can't afford to eat," said Terry Capleton, who started a Facebook group called "I Ain't Afraid to be on Food Stamps" when he was a student at Benedict College in South Carolina.

Some of the students are working their way through college with grants, loans and part-time jobs. Others are just reluctant to ask parents for more money.

"More and more, it's just the typical traditional student, about 18 to 22, that's feeling this crunch," said Larry Brickner-Wood, director of the Cornucopia Food Pantry at the University of New Hampshire.

Link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-07-25-food_N.htm

[erpowers]

1. Colleges Not Offering Free Food

I guess some of these schools are not offering the students food with the room and board payments. I know some school charge students that live on campus room and board and then provide the kids with at least three meals a day. It seems that some of the big named school that charge large amounts of money for tution and housing do not provide free food services. I contend if a school is going to charge $30,000-$50,000 for tuition and an additional $10,000 for housing they should at least provide free food services for their students.

[bluedeminredstate]

3. Room and board is paid separately

I know when I went to school you paid for a dorm room and then you paid for a meal plan. I couldn't afford the meal plan so I scraped by and lost 30 pounds in one semester. It sucked but that was the way it worked.

My daughter is heading off to college next month and it's set up the same way. We pay for her room and then she chooses a meal plan of however many meals per week she thinks she'll eat on campus which is paid for separately.
Even if she lived off campus she could still purchase a meal plan and eat on campus as much as she liked, but food is a separate charge no matter what.

[haele]

4. What they often offer is a "food/debit" card that's supposed to be linked

to a Campus bank account for the student. This account also pays for books and required items for classes and other "benefits" such as parking or additional health care.
If a student has a class schedule with a couple $200 text books he or she can't find from students of the previous semester, that can wipe out the money in the account for the campus cafeteria, especially if they're on a fixed allowance off semester based tuition funds based off what their parents are paying, programs such as the GI bill and/or student loans they had to take out at the beginning of the year.
I can easily see where a student, especially a graduate student, might end up having to use a food bank at the end of a quarter or semester.

Haele

[BlooInBloo]

2. People of all stripes with no skills or education or job.

[coffeenap]

5. Reed College has the coolest thing: you can sign up to be

a "scavenger". It costs nothing for these students to eat: paying students give their left over food at each meal to one of the people who has signed up and in return they get some sort of little treat voucher. It is SO cool. My son was considering going there and because he eats only a VERY limited diet, he would have been the perfect person to become a partner to a scavenger.(It has been a while, the term might not be "scavenger" but you get the idea.) These people are NOT looked down upon and the person who gave us our campus tour proudly admitted to being one, which made it possible for her to finish all four years there and compete for grad school scholarships. (They also have public use bicycles! I love that place!)

[carlyhippy]

6. As much as tuiton is, the schools should feed the students for free

At my kids school, room/board and the meal plan costs more than tuition. It's sad.
Carly