Colleges looking to address food insecurity should explore opportunities to educate students about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), experts say, pointing to a June report by the Government Accountability Office showing that in 2020, around two-thirds (an estimated 67%) of the 3.3 million SNAP-eligible students did not access the program.
SNAP, the largest nutritional program in the U.S., helps low-income households cover the cost of food. However, experts say eligibility requirements for students, stigma associated with receiving public assistance, and a lack of awareness about the program may deter food-insecure, SNAP-eligible students from accessing benefits. To qualify for the program, college students must be enrolled at least full-time and satisfy other criteria, such as working at least 20 hours per week at a paid job, having a mental or physical disability, or being a single parent. Students must also meet citizenship requirements and have a single-person-household gross income of $1,580 a month or less.
“This reinforces the brokenness of the SNAP student rules, and the need for deep reform in the rules, and sort of rewriting other rules,” Mark Huelsman, director of policy at the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice at Temple University, tells Inside Higher Ed. “If two-thirds of potentially eligible students are not receiving benefits, the eligibility criteria and the outreach and really every piece of the system needs to be fundamentally rethought.”
The GAO study, the first of two reports on college student food insecurity, analyzes 2020 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) data—the most recent data available, the report says. The report comes just as Congress is updating the Farm Bill, a major piece of legislation that reauthorizes SNAP and other food and agricultural programs.
Building awareness about public assistance
In 2020, an estimated 23% of college students (3.8 million) reported experiencing food insecurity, according to the GAO report. Most of those students (2.2 million) had very low food security, meaning they had “multiple instances of eating less than they should or skipping meals because they could not afford enough food,” the report says. Almost half of food-insecure students were from low-income households. The data show that federal and state financial aid are often not enough to help low-income students meet the cost of basic needs, experts say.
The vast majority of potential SNAP-eligible students (an estimated 76%) were Pell Grant recipients, the report says. Although Pell Grants are meant to help undergraduate students from low-income households pay for tuition, food, and other expenses, nearly one-third of Pell Grant recipients experienced food insecurity. The maximum award for Pell Grants has been $7,395 since late 2022, when a federal spending bill increased it by $500, its largest increase to date. However, data from the GAO report show that need-based federal aid “is not meeting the moment for addressing the basic needs of students,” says Huelsman.
Advocates say lawmakers should reform SNAP requirements to ensure students can more easily qualify for the program. They are also calling on higher education institutions to use data from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to identify SNAP-eligible students and build awareness about available benefits. In 2022, the Department of Education sent guidance to colleges and universities urging them to inform students about potential eligibility for public assistance.