STUDENT HUNGER IS REAL.

WE CAN HELP END IT.

AND WE ARE.

2017 - 2018
IMPACT REPORT
 October 2018

SOMETHING “If you turn on google alerts for ‘college student hunger,’ you’ll receive several articles a.day.”

TO BE .I shared these words as part of my testimony before lawmakers earlier this year. Since our
.founding in 2010, coverage of and attention around the food security of college students — 

HOPEFUL . a student’s simple ability to access food–– has grown steadily, until last year when it skyrocketed.

The work of Swipe Out Hunger evolves significantly year to year. After eight years of partnering

ABOUT .with universities to end student hunger–– we release our first ever public impact report. The
.work we did this year is the culmination of almost a decade of testing, talking and polishing best
. practices. We are incredibly proud of our work in the 2017-18 school year, a year in which we
. added 20 campus partners and served 100,000 nutritious meals. This report shares how
. access to food can change a student’s life.

. . . . .We’ve learned from those we serve that it takes more than kale salads to create campuses
. . . . . .that live up to the values listed on student orientation letters.

Rachel Sumekh
Co-Founder & Executive Director
WHAT IS
SWIPE
OUT HUNGER BEYOND MEAL SWIPES
OUR PREMIERE PROGRAM
Authored successful $7.5+ million in legislation to
support CA campuses with anti-hunger efforts
OUR ROOTS
Offer online resource + community hub
Founded by a group of friends at UCLA in 2010,
Swipe Out Hunger has become a leading nonprofit Design reports that advise on gaps and
addressing hunger among college students. opportunities for partners to address
Fight stigma associated with college
Our team is dedicated to growing university meal student hunger through campaigns
sharing programs. Our national movement spans over
50 colleges and has served 1.5 million nutritious meals. Conduct program evaluation
for our university partners
Grow SNAP outreach
Meal Swipes Campus Food Pantry
 CRITICAL CONTEXT
OUR THEORY OF CHANGE
After an effective campus
meal share program is adopted…
Students will experience improved health
and nutrition, less stigma and isolation,
and increased academic wellbeing
The campus will achieve higher retention and graduation
rates and become more inclusive as a whole
The movement to support college students’
basic needs will gain greater momentum
The Higher Ed space will move closer
to becoming a true platform
equity and equality
Our meal share programs provide students
between 3 and 90 swipes over an academic term
The variation, outlined further on the following page, reflects resource
availability and demand on each campus. These swipes give students
access to their campus dining hall which if you haven’t been recently,
are bastions of warm, nourishing food with a ranging variety of options.
THE STIGMA & UNREDEEMED SWIPES: Approximately 15% of
campuses end terms with unredeemed meal passes
This can be attributed to:
Stigma of being seen signing up for the program or singled out when
using the meals (both of which can be addressed via technology)
Lack of communication and training between basic needs and dining staff
Lack of clarity and convenience for students when it comes to the
application process, how and when to use swipes, and dining hall hours
Students saving passes for a “worse day” as a result of scarcity
 UC Merced West Virginia University
DINING MANAGED IN-HOUSE DINING MANAGED BY SODEXO

HOW IT
• All year students can donate excess meals. • One week period per semester when students
• All year students can request meals if they are donate their excess swipes.
running low through logging into their CatCard • Donations are converted into vouchers for the dining

BREAKS
mobile ID or iCare web app. hall distributed by The Rack campus pantry.

METRICS METRICS

DOWN
In the 2017-2018 school year 19,167+ meals In the 2017-2018 school year 635 meals
were donated. were donated.

NO TWO CAMPUSES
ARE THE SAME. Cal State East Bay
DINING MANAGED BY ARAMARK
• Meal donation drive each semester where students can donate leftover
swipes redistributed through the HOPE campus pantries.
• Aramark provides additional meal swipes as needed.

METRICS
In the 2017-2018 school year, 3,428 meals were donated.
Aramark provided an additional 260 meals.
CASE STUDIES
 WHO WE SERVE*
RECEIVED FREE

48% 59%
ARE FIRST OR REDUCED
GENERATION PRICED MEALS
STUDENTS WHILE IN K-12

9% 51%
HAVE TAKEN
LACK STABLE
LEFTOVERS

HOUSING IN

FROM CLUB
COLLEGE
MEETINGS

*In the Spring of 2018 Swipe Out Hunger conducted its first ever comprehensive
pilot evaluation. 800 students from private and public universities who have
received SOH meal passes responded
OUR IMPACT
academic success
health
inclusion

“I have become more resilient to

stressful situations now that I am
eating regularly.”
FOURTH YEAR STUDENT,
CAL POLY SLO
IMPACT ON STUDENT
64%
of respondents agree
meal swipes helped

ACADEMIC
them stay in school

SUCCESS 52%
of respondents agree
meal swipes helped
improve their grades

“I got my first dean’s honor list because I was able to have my nutritional needs met”
- Third Year Student, UC Irvine

“I will stay at school longer because I can eat there and I am not distracted by being hungry in class.
- Second Year Student, College of St. Scholastica
 free meal swipes cut these factors by more than half
IMPACT ON STUDENT reliance on a diet of processed food

HEALTH & need to skip meals

worries food would run out

NUTRITION weight loss from lack of food

“By receiving free dining hall passes, I have been able

to nourish my body as needed instead of skipping
meals or resorting to have a ramen diet.”
Second Year Student,
UC Santa Barbara
IMPACT ON CAMPUS

INCLUSIVITY
“This program made me feel like the college
really cares about me, beyond academics.“
Third Year Student,
79%
of respondents agree that
meal swipes have made
Cal State Monterey Bay them feel like the campus
environment is more
“They helped me to build a community of support. inclusive & supportive of
I had regular dining partners and that strengthened students like them.
our relationship.”
Third Year Student,
Cal State East Bay
OUR IMPACT

“After moving out of the dorms, I found myself

eating more meals at home by myself since it was
the only option I could afford. A free dining hall pass
makes it easy to connect with friends over a meal.”

FOURTH YEAR STUDENT,

UCSB
FEEDBACK FROM
OUR CAMPUS Swipe Out Hunger’s support in starting and
maintaining meal share programs was rated
PROGRAM LEADERS 6.69 out of 7 by campus leaders.

71% of campus leaders agree that since joining

"Thank you so much for taking the time to speak
with me. It is so refreshing to have external
support to give us all the information needed to
support our work."
Campus Case Manager in California
the SOH movement, their campus has experienced
an improvement in students’ experience on
campus.
Campus leaders rated Swipe Out Hunger’s
knowledge on how to address campus hunger
as 6.65 out of 7.
WE REACHED 50
CAMPUS PARTNERS
2017 PRESS 2018

April 3, 2018
 FUNDING PARTNERS
HELP US SERVE FY18 Funders + Supporters
MORE STUDENTS IN Margolis Family Foundation  Westly Foundation
MORE COMMUNITIES Rita J. & Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation WeWork
Anthony and Jeannie Pritzker Family Foundation   Good People Fund 
VISIT SWIPEHUNGER.ORG/GROWTH
Michael and Irene Ross Endowment Laurie and Stephen Girsky
TO STRENGTHEN OUR WORK IN 2019
Jewish Community Foundation of LA UCLA Foundation

OUR TEAM
Financial Narrative
FY18 Budget: $202,000
FY19 Budget: $404,000
Rachel Sumekh Marissa Schnitman Maddie Alpert McCarthy
Founder & CEO Director of Programs National Coordinator
Began FY19 with healthy reserve
Forbes 30 Under 30 Data & Analytics Savant Growth + Communications Guided by strong Board of Directors
 GOALS & STRATEGIES FOR THE 2018-19 SCHOOL YEAR
Growth and Efficacy

WHAT’S
.Reach new campuses and students, while ensuring that the *best practices* .
.around meal share programs are being employed and captured.

NEXT
Move Private Sector Forward
.Partner with major food service providers to integrate free
...meal swipes at an institutional scale.
we’re in new terrain Put student voices at the forefront
Of our 800 student respondents, 180 students indicated a
We need experience, introductions and willingness to publicly share their story. We aim to do just that
resources to strengthen our work as we ...starting with the launch of our @OverlookedOnCampus Campaign,
seek to meet this moment of opportunity. .... telling the true, overlooked stories of food insecure students.

Email our team and let’s get to work Advance Federal Legislation
rachel@swipehunger.org Advocate for progressive policy based on the release of
..Government Accountability Office (GAO) Report on student hunger.