Giving Compass' Take:
- Swipe Out Hunger is a program that repurposes leftover or unused food from meal plans and gives them to students experiencing food insecurity.
- How can this program help address college food security? How could donor support help expand this initiative?
- Read more on how numerous college students struggle with food insecurity.
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Nearly 1/3 of college students have missed at least one meal a week during the pandemic and more than 1/3 know someone who has dropped out of college due to difficulties affording food.
If your food bank is looking to have an impact on college hunger, then it needs to get to know Rachel Sumekh and the organization she founded, Swipe Out Hunger.
Swipe Out Hunger has been a presence on college campuses for over a decade, mostly known for its program that lets students donate unused meals from their meal plans to fellow students facing food insecurity. The organization has been on a roll in recent years, helping to pass legislation to aid food-insecure college students and just about tripling the number of campuses it works with to more than 140 in 41 states.
Today, it’s adding to its momentum with the announcement that it will acquire the College & University Food Bank Alliance (CUFBA), an association of more than 800 college food pantries across the country. The deal will allow it to supercharge CUFBA’s resources, such as online toolkits, with Swipe Out Hunger’s meal-donation platform, access to funding for college pantries, and advocacy aimed at raising awareness of college hunger and ultimately ending it.
“It’s a little audacious what we’re doing, but someone has to do it,” Sumekh said.
A recent report from the student advocacy organization Chegg found that nearly one-third (29%) of college students have missed a meal at least once a week since the beginning of the pandemic and more than one-third (34%) know someone who has dropped out of college due to difficulties affording food.
While college-based food pantries have been springing up to address the need, they face challenges, including insufficiencies in funding, food and volunteers.
Food banks have not yet emerged as a strong support system for college-based pantries. Campus pantries report that they are least likely to get their food from food banks (see chart below). Most rely on community donations, while half purchase retail food at discounted or market rates.
Read the full article about food banks by Chris Costanzo at The Counter.