Longitudinal Fluidity in Collegiate Food Security: Disruptions, Restoration, and Its Drivers

Abstract

Research suggests that the combination of high and rising college prices, stagnant family incomes, and increased enrollment of lower-income students leaves many college students struggling to meet their basic needs, including adequate, regular nutrition. Quantitative surveys, used to differentiate magnitudes of food security and report prevalence at a specific point in time — valuable attributes for understanding and managing the associated student success problems they measure — give us little qualitative insight into these students’ day-to-day lives. To address this research gap, Trellis conducted the Financial Security Study, where researchers interviewed 72 students once a month for nine months to better understand the dynamics of student finances, basic needs, and academic performance. This longitudinal perspective revealed that half of the student-participants were food insecure at least once during the nine-month study, as well as a more fluid pattern of collegiate food security than is commonly understood. Trellis observed that sudden shifts in employment, financial aid, social networks, etc., degraded or improved food security.

Keywords: food insecurity, higher education, student success, non-traditional students, low food security, very low food security, basic needs, higher education research