Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Study: High Rates of Food Insecurity Found at Southern Appalachia Colleges

  • 05/24/19

KNOXVILLE, TN – College students in Southern Appalachia are affected by food insecurity at a higher rate than the national average, which can translate into poor academic performance and unhealthy spending habits and coping mechanisms, according to a new study coauthored by researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT), and published in Current Developments in Nutrition.

Researchers found that food insecurity has an average prevalence of 30.5 percent among college students who responded to online surveys at 10 four-year universities in the Southern Appalachia region, which includes Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, and West Virginia. In comparison, the national average of college students that face food insecurity is approximately 12 percent. At some campuses surveyed, food insecurity levels were as high as 51.8 percent.

Over 13,000 undergraduate and graduate students participated in the survey. Researchers performed a statistical analysis of the responses using the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Adult Food Security Survey and other scales to assess money expenditure, coping strategies, and academic progress.

“We found that students who are food insecure had lower academic grades than those who did not face food insecurity,” says Marsha Spence, UT professor of public health nutrition and coauthor of the study. “These same students usually try to save money on other things to obtain food, such as spending less in transportation, utilities, and sometimes even medication.”

According to the study, several factors can predict food insecurity status: being a junior or a sophomore, having an ethnic minority background, receiving financial aid, and having reported poor health indicated a higher risk of food insecurity.

“This study is part of a growing body of evidence that suggests that a large percentage of college students, including students from four-year public institutions, are at risk of food insecurity,” says coauthor Elizabeth Anderson Steeves, professor in UT’s Department of Nutrition. “Studies like ours are important to understand food insecurity and its negative effects on students, so that universities can implement policies and programs to help alleviate this problem and help students succeed.”

Featured

  • Kimball International Releases Curated Design Support Program

    Commercial furnishings company Kimball International recently announced the launch of a new end-to-end design support program, DesignSuite. According to a news release, its goal is to guide architecture & design professionals and dealer partners through the process from vision to specification.

  • Ohio State University Opens 26-Story Hospital

    The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center recently opened in Columbus, Ohio, standing 26 stories and covering 1.9 million square feet, according to a university news release. The project marks ten years of effort and is the university’s largest single-facility construction project ever.

  • College of the Desert Hits Construction Milestone on New Campus

    College of the Desert recently announced that the construction of its new Palm Springs Campus in Palm Springs, Calif., recently reached a major construction milestone, according to a news release. The college is partnering with general contractor C.W. Driver Companies, which recently “topped out” the facility by placing the final beam in its structure.

  • University of Arizona Approves New Residence Hall

    The Arizona Board of Regents recently approved plans for a new residence hall at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Ariz., according to a news release. The new facility is scheduled to open in fall 2028 and have the capacity for more than 1,200 students, enforcing a new university expectation that all first-year students live on campus.