The UO Food Security Task Force co-chairs Marcus Langford and Taylor McHolm spoke at a virtual event on Friday about food insecurity on campus and how it disproportionately affects students of color.
The task force is made up of a broad network of people and organizations both on and off campus and includes students, faculty, administrators and community partners, he said. The task force’s focus shifted in May to address the new realities students faced as a result of COVID-19 and to prioritize the fight for social justice on campus and its effect on food security.
“We really took a hard look at the programs we were offering and asked ourselves, can we do better?” he said.
McHolm defined food insecurity as a lack of reliable access to adequate amounts of nutritious food. It is a sliding scale, so someone who regularly feels the physical sensation of hunger is more food insecure than someone who misses a few meals each week.
“This is a very present problem here at the UO,” Langford said.
In 2017, the Task Force participated in a survey conducted by The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice, and found that 36% of respondents at the UO had experienced food insecurity in the last 30 days. Of those respondents, 20% reported experiencing physical hunger in the last 30 days, and 40% reported that they were unable to afford healthy, balanced meals, he said.
Race also plays a role in students’ access to healthy food. After closely examining the data, they found that students of color experience food insecurity at higher rates than white students. 44% of Black survey respondents at the UO reported experiencing food insecurity, while reported rates for Latinx and Native American students were 50% and 65%, respectively. White students reported at 35%.
“We need to continue to find ways to grow and adapt,” Langford said. “Part of that is thinking about how we can expand the level of service that we’re providing to some of our students from historically marginalized identities.”
To address these discrepancies, the Food Security Task Force has provided additional funding to organizations on campus like the Black Cultural Center and the Many Nations Longhouse so they can support food security programs within their own communities, he said.
There are numerous programs on campus that offer support to students struggling with food insecurity, and the Task Force has had to adapt some of their operations to meet students’ needs while still adhering to COVID-19 protocol.
One of these is the Student Food Pantry, an organization run by the Episcopal Campus Ministry. In order to provide enough space for proper social distancing, the Grace Lutheran Church donated its Sunday school to the pantry, said McHolm. The pantry is open from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays during the school year.
SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is a federal program that provides qualifying students with access to funds that can be used to buy food products. The Food Security Task Force is building a chat feature that allows students to speak directly with a SNAP advisor without having to leave their homes, McHolm said. In addition, some of their student workers have created a series of videos to guide students through the application process.
Another resource is Hearth to Table, a program that holds dinners for students Tuesday evenings in the Central Lutheran Church. The program partners with FOOD for Lane County and the University of Oregon’s DuckNest, and they host Zoom cooking classes every Tuesday where students can follow along at home using ingredients they picked up at the Food Pantry.
“There’s this underlying notion that part of being a college student is having to survive off of ramen and leftover pizza,” Langford said. “That should not be the case. We as an institution and as a society should be able to provide support for students to ensure that they have access to adequate food.”
Cole Sinanian is a junior in music and journalism at UO and a freelancer for the Emerald.