Food insecurity, defined by the Department of Sociology at MNSU, is a lack of reliable access to sufficient quantities of affordable food.
A recent online survey done on campus by students in the spring semester of 2018, in the “Sociology in Action” class, shows that MNSU exceeds the national average of students facing food insecurity. About two-thirds of students claim they face food insecurity in some certain way. According to the study, 64 percent of 260 randomly selected students surveyed claimed they face some sort of food insecurity. This is a huge number. Your classmates, neighbors and colleagues at MNSU could very well be facing food insecurity. College students shouldn’t have to starve. Although media perpetuates this stereotype about the average college student making it by with packs of ramen noodles and sad sandwiches, this shouldn’t be the case in real life. However, it is, especially here at MNSU. That is why I’m inspired to pursue the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) challenge. Not for a week, not for a month, but a whole year. The challenge rules are: I will be only able to spend Minnesota’s SNAP benefit average which is about $110 dollars a month or $3.93 a week. I will only be able to purchase food that are SNAPS benefits eligible. I will be allowed to use campus and community resources for extra food. If free food is given to me, I will be able to eat it. The challenge will last till the beginning of May when I graduate. The challenge applies to holidays and breaks during the school year. Why am I doing this? Ever since I did an article about food insecurity I was astonished by the statistics and wanted to learn more. I did speeches, articles, interviews and research on the topic and found that a lot of students didn’t know what food insecurity is and had a lack of knowledge of resources. I would categorize myself as having low food insecurity as I find myself occasionally skimping on meals to save money. However, I’m still very fortunate and can afford to buy groceries every week. I want to push those limits however, and live how most of my cohorts may live and truly see what it’s like to have food insecurity. I not only want to bring awareness to resources, but I also want to bring awareness about food insecurity in general and normalize the term so people who may be reading this don’t feel like this is something they have to go through and that they are not alone.
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College students should not have to starve, period. Many people are unaware of what food insecurity is and that many students struggle with it every day. That is why I'm doing the SNAP challenge where I survive off of $4 a day on food for not just a week or a month, but a whole entire year.
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