Hungry for a Chance
College life is hard enough. Worrying about where your next meal is coming from should never be part of the equation.
by Brendan Fisher
As a lead coordinator at the Sacramento State student food pantry, senior nutrition major Billie Hale knows no two clients’ sets of challenges are the same.
Her team’s cramped 10-by-12 closet — packed wall to ceiling with goods like rice, beans and cereal boxes on Yosemite Hall’s first floor — provides relief to kids seeking extra help to get through the school year. It can be congested from the traffic of up to 175 students per week who would otherwise have no more immediate means of sustenance.
Some even battle hunger with an added difficulty of living in their cars or finding any other refuge around campus, forced to make basic survival a priority over applying focus where it should be.
“Nobody should ever have to choose between going to work or not doing their homework because they have to go find money or find access to food,” Hale said.
Being short on money often comes with the territory of being a college student, but it becomes an entirely different issue when not having enough to eat gets in the way of an already stressful workload.
“Food insecurity” is a nationwide problem affecting 1 in 8 Californians today. From the California Association of Food Bank’s study of 1.9 million children statewide living in households where it’s unknown where the next meal will be coming from, many grow up to carry that burden to college. These students often become forced to choose between breakfast over textbooks, scavenging over studying, and even homelessness over the needed focus to succeed in the classroom.
From school options to greater community-wide resources, these young potential clients are given a variety of safety nets in the form of campus programs and county food banks which administer provisions to school and community members with educational instruction along the way.
According to the hunger relief nonprofit Feeding America, there are nearly 240,000 food insecure individuals in Sacramento County, with the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services being one resource that provides relief year-round to those in need by delivering canned and fresh foods at 15 locations around the area.
“We’re looking to get people through their exams and we know we have people working at their best when they not only have a full belly, but one full of nutritious components,” said vice president of communications Kelly Siefkin, who sees many parallels between the center’s clientele and the average college student. “We believe strongly there are direct ties to individual’s health based on what they’re putting into their mouth, so we’re not only pushing fresh items, but education.”
According to Siefkin, one part of that education comes in the form of teaching how to limit food wastefulness, a quality that often worsens insecurity and college kids can be notorious for having. In an analysis from the Massachusetts-based organization Recycling Works, the average student tosses away 142 pounds of food annually; an issue Siefkin believes arises from an added challenge of living near campus, where limited space in an apartment or dorm room can lead to more careless tendencies due to smaller areas for refrigeration or easier access to a dining hall.
One effortless solution? Leftovers.
“There are plenty of things where there can be easily prepared meals, like the microwave for example at the student union to heat up, or if there are fresh produce and refrigerated hummus you can take with you for school,” Siefkin said.
“If students have leftovers from an opportunity they had a meal with a family member or someone’s house, taking the small amount of time to figure out how to repurpose that meal goes a long way.”
Across town near the state capitol, policy associate Melissa Romero with the environmental lobbying organization Californians Against Waste looks to build on the momentum of two group-sponsored assembly bill’s she’s seen pass in the last year, new laws in California she sees as a step in the right direction towards further cutting into the careless food waste epidemic.
Romero’s group works as a research team, now tackling environmental issues after collaborative work done with the National Resources Defense Council and Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic revealed policy recommendations for states on how to both reduce environmental pollution and put money back into the wallets of consumers.
From the NRDC report that the average household throws away $1,300-$2,200 or 25 percent of all food they buy, CAW found motivation to pursue an opportunity to pass Assembly Bills 954 written by San Francisco’s David Chiu and 1219 by Stockton’s Susan Eggman, the first dealing with modifying food labels to keep supermarkets from throwing away food still fresh despite often inaccurate “best by” dates and the second allowing food banks to donate to those on the street directly instead of having to travel to a food bank in the case it’s too far.
“Something that causes a lot of food waste at home is misinterpretation of food date labels,” said Romero about AB 954, which will be enforced starting July 1, 2018 after Governor Brown’s October approval. “In actuality, they don’t tell us anything about food safety and more often than not, that food is still good to eat. The bill says aim for a ‘peak freshness’ label versus an actual food safety label.”
Romero recommends college kids be unafraid to take advantage of clearance shelves, but to also buy realistic quantities of products on their last leg of “peak freshness” to keep from having to throw away something the market would have otherwise tossed soon after a customer spent money on it.
“I was a college student not too long ago living in a dorm and I think the key was just not to buy too much,” she said. “I think it’s being aware of what portions you’re actually going to eat.”
Sac State offers cooking demonstrations twice a month by students, for students interested in how to cook budget-minded recipes, with many specifically tailored to attendees living in dorms if not apartments with stoves or other larger appliances.
“The Wellness Workshops” overseen by school dietitian Jennifer Campbell often are available based on request by resident assistants seeking an interactive demo or are themed, welcoming students to stop by to learn how to make “spooky treats” around Halloween, or “fall in love with breakfast,” with the added perk of taking the extras home with them.
The practice attempts to give a new found motivation to have a bite to eat before class every morning.
“Our objectives are to teach students how to plan and what their resources are available to them,” says Campbell, who in organizing the events seeks to both reduce waste and decrease the stigma of insecurity. “A lot of times we’re also teaching students they don’t have to cook every night. You could cook once or twice a week and if there’s extra you can freeze it.
“For most people it’s just making small steps that are achievable. Students are already overwhelmed, so it’s about picking the easiest thing to start there.”
“Small steps” has become the type of mantra Billie Hale’s aimed to pass on ever since she’s started coordinating.
Giving just a little of one’s time as a volunteer, delivering a generous food donation which would otherwise have not been used, or for an individual anxious about stopping by the pantry finally reaching out for help are all small steps that could make a difference.
The Sacramento County food insecurity rate has seen a steady five-year drop of 17.3 percent in 2011 to 16.3 in 2015 as stated in another study from Feeding America, in part from a calculated campaign to shoot down existing stigmas and raise awareness of CalFresh and other assistance program availabilities, many of which citizens didn’t know they were eligible.
Despite leaving in December, Hale continues to work in what she’s found as her second home, stacking boxed items and other donations in the Yosemite Hall closet in wake of Thanksgiving.
The space will be closed during the holiday week, so she preps for both the hectic days before and week after where she expects an uptick in traffic.
Hale understands students require assistance year-round, which is why she urges those in need to visit without hesitation during the winter and summer months when classes aren’t in session.
She believes if the reluctance dissipated among those seeking temporary help, the brighter the outlook would become for a further decrease in an already shrinking rate at the county level.
“We’re just trying to break down these walls and stigmas,” Hale said. “Since we’ve started at the pantry, we’re so well known we’ve grown about 10–15 percent every year.
“It doesn’t matter what your situation is, we’re never going to turn you away.”
