College students: A forgotten demographic in tackling Kenya’s food access gaps
Access to food is one of the four pillars of food security, alongside food availability, utilisation, and stability. Access relates to the ability of a household or individual to obtain food of sufficient quality, quantity, safety and diversity, based on their physical and socioeconomic environment.
As we speak, the drastic impact of Covid-19 on this broader food “infrastructure” is becoming more evident. With many households facing a loss of income, their ability to buy access food has been further compromised. The decline in purchasing power has been further exacerbated by other Covid-19 impacts, including price increases, closure of physical markets, and supply chain disruptions, all of which have played a role in rising food insecurity.
Food access among the most affected groups
While discussing Kenya’s food security amid the corona virus crisis in July, the agriculture Cabinet Secretary noted that, as a result of favourable harvests, there is enough food for all. This does not mean, however, that all households in the country have the same access to food supplies.
Among the most hit are low-income families, who lack a stable source of income. A recent report by Trends and Insights Africa revealed that 30% of low income earners in Nairobi had lost their incomes to Covid-19, while others have faced pay cuts, drastically reducing their ability to buy food. The plight of farmers has also been highlighted consistently over the past few months. Some food producers are grappling with the loss of direct links to large buyers, such as schools and restaurants. Others have suffered from the closure of, or reduced demand from local markets. All these disruptions also mean a rise in post-harvest losses, or higher logistical costs for getting produce to markets.
A lot of concern, and justifiably so, has therefore focused on the pandemic’s impact on low-income populations, such as small-scale farmers, or inhabitants of informal settlements in urban areas. However, one important demographic has been largely overlooked: university/college students. This article will explore the food access challenges faced by this group as a result of Covid-19 disruptions.
A hidden demographic
Learning institutions were among the first to shut down as soon as the first Covid-19 case was reported in early March. What has been rarely spoken of is what this closure means for students who relied on highly subsidized meals within student dining halls.
In a brief survey of meal prices in four major Kenyan universities, I found out that the average cost is between KES 20 and KES 40 (approximately 20 to 46 US cents) for a full nutritious meal per serving. The low food price range favours low-income students, most of whom depend on student loans from the Higher Education Loan Board to meet their basic needs. With colleges closed, these students can no longer rely on subsidized meals and accommodation, and also incur higher living costs outside their campuses.
By contrast, the average cost of a comparable meal at nearby private-run eateries is between KES 50 to 150. Unlike learning institutions, who can leverage economies of scale to achieve better value for money, the mostly small-scale eateries frequented by students have to charge more for food (although prices remain quite competitive).
While most students returned to their family homes following the closure of their learning institutions, those who could not (due to financial constraints, or initial assumptions that universities would reopen sooner) are more likely to face even greater challenges in accessing food. This is because many of the privately owned restaurants, grocery shops, and food joints that relied heavily on high student populations were also forced to close down in the wake of the pandemic.
Moreover, many students that managed to go back home following the ban on movement in and out of the four main Covid-19 zones (between 6 April and 6 July) were still forced to incur rental costs. This was particularly the case for out-of-campus students who travelled upcountry, but were subsequently “locked out” of their rental premises within the Nairobi and Mombasa metropolitan areas, and unable to move out of their rooms.
Targeting support
Despite the shift to online learning platforms, one of the steps taken to address the physical needs of college-age students has been to maintain disbursements from the Higher Education Loan Board, and to continue to accept new loan applications. While some students have complained of late payments, many are grateful for this line of support during tough times.
Laudable as these efforts are, however, there is a need to explore more sustainable solutions for all vulnerable segments of the population. Six months into the pandemic, and with no end in sight, this means looking beyond student loans, or other social protection measures such as cash transfers or food vouchers.
One of the unexpected positive impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic has been the rise of agribusiness entrepreneurs, supplying fresh produce from car boots, launching direct deliveries for food purchased online, or venturing into food processing and other value-added activities. Among these are university students who have taken up roles in food production and distribution to boost their incomes and facilitate food access. In a widely welcomed initiative to boost security, as well as much-needed income for families, the government recently unveiled plans to support up to one million households to establish kitchen gardens. Ensuring that college students, and other young people, are included in such measures can ensure that the next generation of social protection measures is more socially inclusive than the current one.
Written by Sharon Cheboi
This article is part of Covid-19 Food/Future, an initiative under TMG ThinkTank for Sustainability’s SEWOH Lab project (https://www.tmg-thinktank.com/sewoh-lab). It aims at providing a unique and direct insight into the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on national and local food systems. Also follow @CovidFoodFuture, our Video Diaries From Nairobi, and @TMG_think on Twitter. Funding for this initiative is provided by BMZ, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
