Healthy, Housed, and Well-Fed: Exploring Basic Needs Support Programming in the Context of University Student Success

Abstract

Meeting college students’ basic needs is the goal of a new set of student success initiatives that address students’ urgent food, housing, or financial hardships in an effort to help them remain and succeed in college. Focusing on one California public university, we describe one such basic needs program, identifying the students who participate, their hardships and services received, and their retention over time. Students presented with issues in four main areas: food insecurity, mental health, multiple severe hardships, and need for one-time supports. In general, participants were retained at lower rates than the campus average, which is to be expected given their severe hardships. However, those who enrolled in the Supplementation Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) were retained at higher rates, on par with or higher than university-wide retention. California has amended SNAP regulations to waive work requirements for low-income students, making it easier for college students to qualify.

Demographics Matter: Non-white and White Life Science Graduate Students Perceive and Use Resources Differently

“…, 2016 ; Nazmi et al. , 2019 ; Balzer Carr and London, 2020 ), as well as lack of social support ( Collie et al. , 2017 ; Li et al.…”

Security as servingness: Examining links between food insecurity and performance at a Hispanic-serving institution.

“…This program offers guidance and support for students to apply for county resources such as the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Although effective (Balzer Carr & London, 2020), this resource is severely impacted on campus. The university also has about seven food pantry services at various locations with limited publicity (Hentschke & Bullock, 2021).…”

What does it mean to belong? An interdisciplinary integration of theory and research on belonging

“…One persisting conversation centering economic factors includes access to basic needs like food and housing security (Bruening et al, 2017;El Zein et al, 2019;Goldrick-Rab et al, 2019;Greenberg et al, 2021;Valle et al, 2023). When basic economic needs are unmet, students experience critical challenges to their well-being, performance, and retention (Balzer Carr & London, 2020;Martinez et al, 2018;Payne-Sturges et al, 2018;Phillips et al, 2018;Ryan et al, 2018). These challenges are especially heightened for low-income students of color who navigate economic familial hardships, which were only exacerbated by the onset of COVID-19 pandemic (Basch et al, 2022;Soria et al, 2020;Vargas & Sanchez, 2020).…”