Hunger for Knowledge or Just Hunger?

The society is globally aware of the devastating poverty and hunger in different counties all around the world. Who would possibly imagine the country with one of the most advanced game technologies and space researching equipment? We know that people are dying from hunger all over the world but do we know that our citizens are suffering from the same challenge right next to us?

Through all the decades students have been going through some pressure in college which is completely normal: tough on money, limited on resources, lots of schooling material to learn and life path to figure out.

Who has gone through that, would say it does not cause any harm, au contraire it give a good life lesson on the value of money and how hard the success is earned. However, over the time the situation has changed dramatically: students are not simply infringed – they are now beyond surviving.

How Severe is the Problem?

In the University of California administrated survey showed that 42 % suffer from hunger because they don’t have enough resources to afford it. Could you imagine how bad then is the situation in the community colleges? Former foster children and students of color are facing high risks of food insecurity during the studies.

City University of New York also conducted a survey among students of the community college and revealed that 30 percents of regular students and 22 percents of the four-year college students feel strong food insecurity nowadays. The situation is pretty much the same all over the country.

Defining the Reasons

Higher education fees are now unaffordable for the middle-class incomes that face strong downturn of the general wealth. The expenses that are called “for education” do include food and shelter disburses that are often not taken into account. Conditions students are living in cannot be ignored as they influence the education academic performance.

The studies show that today, 1 out of 4 college student has a child. However, most of these young parents cannot get child care because one of the obligatory requirements includes working from 20 to 30 hours per week to get cash backing.

It turns out that food stamps have major obstruction on the way as well. Students who don’t have children who qualify to get food stamp, get restricted from receiving them for the same working hour requirements. Twenty hours per week may seem not too hard but students face discouraging truth of the work-market rivalry and low wages.  Besides the food insecurity, students come across placement problems having no money to afford college dorms. So, the income, students work under pressure to get, is obviously not enough to provide for food, shelter and education.

It’s Us Who Can Make the Difference

It is a great idea to organize free food courts, donating cans of soup and packs of cereals for students but this not a long term action that will make significant changes. More persistent and purposeful actions have to be taken, such as distributing meal vouchers, raising money for students’ food support coalitions, revision of the food stamp system and many more.

All in all, for successful and educated future generations all the aspects of student life should be taken into account. In any case, can any of us work or study when starving?