Giving Compass' Take:

• The FAST Fund is a small nonprofit program that acts as a food scholarship for students who experience food insecurity in college.  

• How can donors help higher education administrators expand food security programs for students?

• Learn more about the numerous college students who struggle with food insecurity. 

College kids have a reputation for seeking out free food, and that's why any student organizer knows that ordering pizza is a good way to lure folks to a meeting. But for many students, hunger is a far more serious problem.

More than 30 percent of college students may not regularly get enough to eat. And that's from an analysis conducted last year by the federal Government Accountability Office.

The issue of “food insecurity” among students was one of the major topics of discussion at the #RealCollege conference in Houston that was held earlier this fall. It brought together students, professors, administrators and policymakers from across the country, and it was at Houston Community College, which has actually done a lot of work to help students and their families have the food that they need to succeed in the classroom.

EdSurge: At the #RealCollege conference, I met many students and professors and nonprofit leaders who are making it a priority personally and professionally to prevent students' stomachs from growling. One of them is Kat Cowley. She's the food pantry student coordinator at the University of Montana.

EdSurge: Cowley told me about who uses the multiple food pantries at the university, which are called the Grizzly Cupboards. The school sports teams are called the Grizzlies, and so the university adopted the same name for the food distribution sites.

EdSurge: Professors then end up with a front-row seat to what these struggles are for students.

That's why the organizer of the #RealCollege conference, Sara Goldrick-Rab, a Temple University professor and college affordability advocate, started the FAST Fund. It's a nonprofit program that gives small grants to professors who then use the money to help students with small needs, say a grocery gift card or a bus pass to make sure they can get to class.

Read the full article about food scholarships by Rebecca Koenig at EdSurge.