Hungry College Students

Civic Engagement Project Proposal/ COM 495-01, Senior Seminar, University of Dubuque
By: Afif H. Sharmarki
 The Problem

With the rising of costs of classes and books nowadays, there is a high number of hungry
students across the United States of America. One of the saddest things for college students
during college years is facing the fact of being hungry while pursuing a college degree.
According to a survey that has been done by researchers from the University of Temple and the
Wisconsin Hope Lab, 36 percent of college students at 66 surveyed colleges and universities in
America do not get enough food to eat. A lot of researchers link the problem of hunger to the
schools growing enrollment among the low-income students who come from low income
families. Also there are some schools that are not willing to admit that hunger does really exist
among college students in America. The report, which is the first to include students from two-
year, and four- year private and public universities, including the University of George
Washington, found that nearly 1 in 10 community college students have gone for a whole day
without eating in the past month. That number was 6 percent among university students. Any
institution was invited to participate in the survey, though the sample was not designed to be
representative of colleges nationwide.
 School Costs

Costs for the Academic Year at the University of Dubuque

Full-time Tuition $32,670

Student Fees $1,440

Room (Double Occupancy) $4,930

Board (Standard meal plan) $4,850

TOTAL ESTIMATED $43,890

CHARGES

Other Fees

Annual Parking Permit $85

Orientation Fee $100

J-Term $210
(University of Dubuque, 2018)
With all these tuitions that most of the UD students, who are estimated at 2000 students who are
currently enrolled, students do not have enough money to purchase to food. Here is a list of
different meal plans and prices of each one, and the amount of meals.
A: 280 swipes (15 meals a weak) $3,000 per semester.
B: 250 swipes (10 meals a week) $2,000 per semester.
C: 150 swipes (8 meals a week) $1050 per semester.
 Statistics

These are some statistics and facts about the number of students who have been fed by the
volunteers in the food pantry at the University of Dubuque. The amount of food has been given
away in the past couple of weeks to students! We average around 600-800 pounds of food for
students.
Date Total people fed Total visits
November,2018 525 191
October, 2018 835 285
September,2018 470 160
August,2018 144 41
May,2018 97 34
(UDTS Food pantry monthly statistics by Logan Ellis)
 Solution

The solution of this problem is easy; if people really want to fix it and want to make the
community campus a better place for all students, not only for those who are hungry because the
UD community is one big family, we must care about each other. The prices of the meal plans at
the University of Dubuque per semester are very high. Each student will have to pay around
$4,850 per year for only food for 8 months, and their meal plans must be paid before the
beginning of every semester. Which is quite expensive for food. I will have a table at Heritage
Center to bring awareness to other students about this issue so they might contribute to the
solution.

There are multiple solutions to this problem is to let those hungry students who do not have the
ability to purchase to food due to lack of money is to let them take the leftover food instead of
throwing it every day. Since it is all paid for and UD has the prices of those meals, why not let the
students take this food? According to some UD students who have seen several students and who
are friends with other students, there are a lot of students suffering from lack of food, as they have
no money to buy food whenever they feel hungry. This make some students who have extra food.
Swipes buy kindly purchase a meal for their friends and/or fellow students. In essence, people are
suffering from hunger when food is being thrown away, which can easily be resolved by allowing
students to take the leftovers.
Another solution to fix this problem is to reduce the meal plan prices and make them to affordable
for everyone. The solution of this problem must be taken just as serious as obtaining an education,
as it is difficult for students to focus on their studies while they are hungry.

❖ Free food pantry

❖ Evening food takeaway
❖ Food stamp program
 The Goal

The main goal of this project is to bring awareness of the problem of college students who
are unable to eat or go hungry. Bringing awareness of this problem will inform more people that
anyone can become broke and be unable to buy a small meal; furthermore, it will also make the
college community a stronger community when we all start helping one another by feeding the
hungry one who are among us, as no one knows about those students. Another goal of this
project is to reduce the number of hungry college students to less than the half, or as much as
possible, by encouraging more people get involved and become a part of the solution. Lastly, the
goal of the project is to ultimately create successful partnerships with outside sources without
putting all the weight on colleges, so that all parties have an opportunity to participate assist in
reducing the number of hungry college students.
 Timeline

In the past couple of weeks, I have been in contact with a lot of people on campus to help me with my
project. And to be honest each one of them was very helpful with the information and advises they
provide me with in order to complete my project.
Task Resources Date
Learned more about the food Logan Ellis 11/29/2018
pantry
Reserve the table Tracey 11/30/2018
printing off papers Library, Computers, printer 12/6/2018
Presented my project at the Afif Sharmarki, 12/6/2018
Heritage Center
 References

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/harold-o-levy/homeless-college-students_1_b_11513964.html
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/03/599197919/hunger-and-homelessness-are-
widespread-among-college-students-study-finds
http://www.dbq.edu/Admission/
https://www.affordablecollegesonline.org/homeless-students-guide/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/04/03/the-hidden-crisis-on-college-
campuses-36-percent-of-students-dont-have-enough-to-
eat/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.812c32b7c2c7
UDTS (University of Dubuque Food Pantry Statistics)
Hungry and Homeless by Sara Goldrick-Rap.
Mike Durnin, Dean of Student’s Life, University of Dubuque.