P146 - Food Security and the on-Campus Student: Assessment of Meal Plan Use

Abstract

Background (Background, Rationale, Prior Research, and/or Theory): Though students who participate in campus meal plans tend to have healthier diets than those who provide for themselves, adequacy is not guaranteed. Awareness of food insecurity among college students is growing, but is often focused on the off-campus student. Assessment of the degree of the problem on-campus, as well as how students handle inadequate provisions, is necessary in order to develop appropriate support. Objective: To determine the degree of food insecurity among students with campus meal plans. Study Design, Setting, Participants, Intervention: Qualtrics software was used to administer a survey to all students living in on-campus housing and participating in the mandatory campus meal plans three weeks before the end of the fall 2016 semester. Outcome Measures and Analysis: Sociodemographic, meal plan spending patterns, and food insecurity-compensatory practice data were collected. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze survey results. Results: Five hundred and fifty two surveys (23%) were completed during the survey period. Respondents were primarily female (73%), Caucasian (70%), freshman (64%), and lived in residence halls (78%). While approximately 21% stated that they sometimes or more frequently skipped meals out of fear of running out of money on their meal plans, more than 30% skipped meals at least once per month in order to extend the duration their plan would last. At the point in the semester when the survey was distributed, 10% expected to have no money left at the end of the term, and more than 6% expected to have to go hungry because of this. Conclusions and Implications: Though a majority of students did not experience food insecurity, it is notable that nearly one-third of students reported altering their meal plan use to ensure that they would not run out of money before the end of the term. Because of the impact of nutrition on overall school performance, and because students already are dealing with many other stressors, removing concern for how to obtain adequate nutrition is crucial. Funding: None.