Executive Summary
The majority of campus students face significant issues that tend to affect their education. One crucial concern that affects this group is hunger and the inability to afford a balanced diet that can sustain their education. Due to this, the federal government recognizes the problem and enacts practical strategies to address the issue at the national level. More specifically, the N.Y. State Senate Bill S1151C begins to address the problem by advocating for a hunger-free campus. This policy attempts to ensure that all campus students are able to afford sufficient and a relatively balanced diet to enhance their overall learning capabilities. Despite this strategy, aimed at addressing food insecurity among students in public and private institutions, recent research highlights that a significant number of campus students still face food insecurity. Due to this, it is essential that the N.Y. state explores this concern and reviews the policy to ensure that all objectives are realized.
Scope of the Problem
Food insecurity has been a significant concern in recent years, with a slight improvement in the foreseeable future. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, approximately thirty percent of campus students across the U.S. faced food insecurity at specific points in their college lives (Izumi et al., 2018). However, there has been a notable increase in the number of these students after the pandemic calling for practical strategies to help mitigate the problem (Au et al., 2020). A close analysis of the issue presents more disturbing statistics associated with campus students. It involves the idea that the most affected students are made up of persons from the African-American, American-Indian, and Hispanic groups. This concern points out that issues associated with ethnic disparities must be considered.
The problem was made more adverse by a decrease in the number of food assistance services following the closure of university campuses. This concern presented significant challenge o learners that relied on food assistance services. The majority of the learners, mainly those aged eighteen and twenty-four years, are unable to find employment that would have played a crucial role in helping them address the problem (Au et al., 2020). When viewed together, these issues cripple the capacity of vulnerable and low-income campus learners to meet basic human needs, including food sustainability. The nation can and should strive to do better for these vulnerable individuals to help them meet and sustain food security in their respective educational institutions.
Policy Recommendation
To effectively boost strategies necessary to address food insecurity and ensure a hunger-free society among campus students, it is critical to ensure the effectiveness of the hunger-free campus act. More specifically, the federal government can realize this approach by calling for private and governmental organizations to donate to organizations committed to fighting food insecurity. The donations can be channeled to these organizations in the form of physical or monetary donations. This approach will help boost the initial agenda of the N.Y. State Senate Bill S1151C. Another policy recommendation is for the federal government to consider expanding the National School Lunch Program Plan to two- and four-year. The program that currently offers meals for over thirty million teenagers could be extended to on-campus institutions (Au et al., 2020). This approach can be done by the campuses providing low-cost and nutritious free meals to persons that qualify for food assistance. Adopting these strategies will play an integral role among campus students to ensure the sustenance of the N.Y. State Senate Bill S1151C.
References
Au, L. E., Ritchie, L. D., Gurzo, K., Nhan, L. A., Woodward-Lopez, G., Kao, J., Guenther, M. P., Tsai, M., & Gosliner, W. (2020). Post–healthy, hunger-free kids act adherence to select school nutrition standards by region and poverty level: The healthy communities study. Journal of nutrition education and behavior, 52(3), 249-258. Web.
Izumi, B. T., Bersamin, A., Shanks, C. B., Grether-Sweeney, G., & Murimi, M. (2018). The US National School Lunch Program: A brief overview. The Japanese Journal of Nutrition and Dietetics, 76(Supplement), S126-S132. Web.