Almost half of U.S. community college students responding to the #RealCollege survey conducted by The Hope Center for College, Community and Justice indicated that they had experienced food insecurity within the 30 days before completing the survey (Goldrick-Rab et al., 2019). In response, an increasing number of community colleges are working to eliminate food insecurity for students and their families. Through programs such as on-campus food pantries, community gardens, farmers’ markets, and food scholarships, colleges are finding solutions for students and, in some cases, staff who are experiencing food insecurity.

As part of the League for Innovation in the Community College’s Innovative Solutions for Hunger Relief and Health Eating Project, we invite you to share your college’s approaches to reducing food insecurity in a contribution to our blog. See submission criteria and instructions here.

Innovative Solutions for Hunger Relief and Student Success Project

To help community colleges reduce food insecurity for students and their families in sustainable ways that foster student retention, persistence, and success, the League launched a two-year project, “Innovative Solutions for Hunger Relief and Student Success.” The League is working with two community colleges serving rural, economically distressed areas to develop effective, innovative models for hunger relief that can be adopted or adapted by community colleges and other institutions.

As part of the project, staff, students, and community members at Northeast Texas Community College and West Kentucky Community and Technical College have been trained in Innovation Engineering, a proven systems approach to innovation created by Eureka! Ranch. Eureka! Ranch conducted the training and is coaching the colleges’ project teams as they identify and develop effective solutions through Innovation Engineering’s use of Fast Fail and Plan-Do-Study-Act processes.

Ultimately, this process looks at the food insecurity problem not in isolation, but in the context of a larger ecosystem and ways it can better support the basic needs of its population.

The Hope Center for College, Community and Justice, located at Temple University and directed by Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab, is providing pre- and post-assessments of the scope of need among students and their families at the participating colleges.

Reference

Goldrick-Rab, S., Baker-Smith, C., Coca, V., Looker, E., & Williams, T. (2019). College and University Basic Needs Insecurity: A National #RealCollege Survey Report. https://hope4college.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/HOPE_realcollege_National_report_digital.pdf