The following questions were asked if regard to students’ feelings towards food security due to a lack of or no money. Students were asked in they had to cut or skip meals (and how often), went entire days without eating, and other situations due to a lack of money.1 Students were also asked how they handled situations when they had run out of money for food, and if they had received any assistance.
For the following statements, please state whether they were often true, sometimes true, or never true for you/your household in the last 30 days.
Household is determined by the number of people you purchase and prepare food with. This may or may not include your roommates. Figure 7.1: Food Eaten in Household
Food insecurity was determined using the two-item food insecurity screening questions. If a student answered “sometimes true” or “often true” to either question, they were considered to be food insecure (n=118, 86% of 137 reporting)..:
Figure 7.2: Two-Item Food Insecure
Of the survey participants, the data indicates that 61 people are considered to be food insecure. There are 57 survey participants considered not to be food insecure, meaning they answered “never true” to the above question criteria.
The following are statements that people have made about their eating situations over the last 30 days:
Did you ever cut the size of your meals or skip meals because there wasn’t enough money for food (n=117, 85% of 137 reporting). If yes, how many days did this happen (n=26, 19% of 137 reporting). Figure 7.3: Cut/Skip Meal: Identification & Distribution
The majority of people claim that they did not have to skip meals since they had enough money (91 people). However, 26 people claimed that they did have to skip meals due to not having enough money. Of the people that did skip meals, the average number of days where they had to skip/cut a meal (denoted by the dotted line) was 6 days, while the median was 5 days. The majority of the data is below 10 days, but a small amount of students did report skipping/cutting a meal more than 10 days in the last month.
Did you ever not eat for a whole day because there wasn’t enough money for food (n=124, 91% of 137 reporting). If yes, how many days did this happen (n=9, 7% of 137 reporting). Figure 7.4: No Food All Day: Identification & Distribution
Over the past 30 days at the time of the survey, 115 people claimed they did not have to skip eating for a full day since they had enough money and 9 people claimed that they did skip eating for a full day. Of the people that did skip meals for an entire day, the average number of days where they had to skip/cut all meals (denoted by the dotted line) was 7 days, while the median was 5 days. The majority of the data is below 5 days, but a small amount of students did report skipping/cutting a meal more than 5 days in the last month.
Yes (%) | |
---|---|
Did you ever eat less than you/your household felt you/your household should because there wasn’t enough money for food (n = 116)? | 32 (27.6%) |
Were you ever hungry but didn’t eat because there wasn’t enough money for food (n = 119)? | 25 (21.0%) |
Did you lose weight because there wasn’t enough money for food (n = 116)? | 9 (7.8%) |
Measure | Yes (%) |
---|---|
I did not run out of money for food | 75 (62.5%) |
I used my credit card (not debit card) to buy food. | 29 (24.2%) |
I started skipping meals. | 19 (15.8%) |
My friends, family or roommates gave me money for groceries. | 16 (13.3%) |
I went to the food pantry or other free food organizations. | 15 (12.5%) |
My friends, family or roommates fed me or took me out to eat. | 12 (10.0%) |
I can get free food/meals from my work. | 5 (4.2%) |
These questions were developed by the USDA’s screener for food insecurity status↩︎