College students, faculty and staff suffer from hunger at alarming and hard-to-believe rates, said Sarita Cargas, director of the New Mexico Basic Needs Consortium.
“Students in higher education are particularly susceptible to food insecurity because they are not working as much. The idea that they are just drinking beer and partying all the time is a myth — 60% of them work, 30% of them full time,” said Cargas, also an associate professor of human rights at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
Sarita Cargas
UNM offers a stark example of the appalling trend in college towns across the country, said Andy Stoker, pastor at Central United Methodist Church in Albuquerque, a congregation located across the street from the university and an active participant in the consortium. Stoker also serves as director of advocacy for FaithWorks.
“We’re dealing with the lowest levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs here — hunger, housing, access to water. These are such elemental things and most of us take them for granted, but there are a surprising number of people who are deprived of the most basic things,” he said.
A 2023 survey conducted by the UNM Basic Needs Project found 66% of students, faculty and staff at schools across the state experienced some level of basic needs insecurity that year, including 52% who were food insecure, 58% who were housing insecure and 16% who were homeless.
The study included responses from 13,837 students, faculty and staff from 27 institutions throughout the state.
Among faculty and staff, 36% were food insecure, 47% were housing insecure and 12% experienced homelessness. By comparison, 58% of students were food insecure, 47% were housing insecure and 17% experienced homelessness.
Many of those who identified as food insecure also reported disruptions in eating patterns such as lower levels of food intake, skipping meals and losing weight.
“People are suffering quietly because there is such a stigma attached to food insecurity,” Cargas explained. “People are embarrassed, so we need to bring awareness to this issue so more people are aware of what’s going on in higher education.”
At the University of Michigan, the Maize and Blue Cupboard provides food, kitchenware, hygiene items and school supplies to those who are struggling.
“College students and staff are experiencing food insecurity at alarming rates. The Maize and Blue Cupboard is here to provide an immediate and comprehensive response for the U-M community,” publicity says.
Likewise, the Columbia University Food Pantry is fighting hunger “while raising awareness throughout the entire university.” The food pantry serves all students across Columbia’s 21 schools, colleges and affiliates.
Cargas said there are more than 800 such pantries on college campuses across the country, including at nearly every college and university in New Mexico.
Andy Stoker
To better meet the challenge, the UNM Basic Needs Project launched the Basic Needs Consortium in 2023 as a collaborative and systemic approach to reducing basic needs insecurity in higher education.
And it was a year later when Stoker said he learned of the study and its revelation that significant numbers of students, faculty were experiencing hunger and homelessness in the university right across the street from his church.
“I preached about it for three weeks in September 2024, how we were ideally situated to help. It captured the imagination of our congregation and the whole project just sort of unfolded,” he said.
That project included the discovery that only 6% of students at UNM live on campus and the rest are commuter students, meaning the majority of those experiencing basic needs deprivation suffer in isolation from the university community.
“And we learned it isn’t just a student problem, it’s a family issue,” he said. “So, we began to wrap our heads around what it looks like to affect positive change for families, and we concluded joining the consortium would be the way to go. We are the only faith-based institution in the consortium currently.”
Since then, Central United Methodist has hosted two of the organization’s annual meetings and also hosted collaborative “SNAP-A-PALOOZA” events where social workers help people apply for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Stoker said the team led by Abbey Reed, the church’s director of neighboring, also has been working to alert other faith communities around UNM about the prevalence of hunger for those on campus on a regular basis.
The church also got permission to visit the university’s food pantry and discovered it wasn’t addressing the need for essential nonfood items.
“What we decided to do is have a ‘Fill the Gaps’ campaign with other congregations to collect feminine hygiene products, toilet paper, laundry detergent, etc. We deliver those supplies to the food pantry so students do not have to buy these items, which saves them money they can spend on food.”
Now the church has a goal of putting an even greater dent in hunger in higher education, Stoker added.
“We’ve discovered that in our proximity to the university and with our connection with students, we can provide a significant positive impact on ending food insecurity at the University of New Mexico and Central New Mexico Community College,” he said. “We are working to reduce food insecurity 30% by 2030.”