Identifying Needy Students for University-Industry Snapfeed Program

Abstract

This paper aims to provide empirical evidence on the university students’ nutritional habits and peer pressure on food purchases. In addition, the motivations for the study were the media highlights on poverty among public university students that led to hunger. A survey was conducted with a sample size of 1,000 students; the response rate was 80%. The findings revealed the dietary patterns from money spent on food. Cross-tabulation between family income and the number of daily meals per day showed that students coming from a low-income background have satisfactory nutritional habits, but lack of money meant lesser meals or food insecurity. Hence, a snapfeed program for low-income student to assist with daily food intake was suggested. Keywords: Needy students; poverty; dietary habits; food insecurity eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2019. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/e-bpj.v4i12.1900