CSU System Tackles Food Insecurity, Homelessness Among Students

Francisco Padilla

In the California State University system, 41 percent of students have experienced food insecurity, 21 percent of those were very low food security, and 11 percent had experienced homelessness in the last year.

It’s a shocking list of statistics that shed light on the harsh reality college students in California are facing today.

The study which was done by Rashida Crutchfield, an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at California State University Long Beach, gives belief to the longstanding story that college students today are struggling to find stable housing and food security.

Homelessness as defined by the US Department of Education is “a lack of a fixed adequate and regular place to stay.”

Ever since her start in 2015, Crutchfield has been at task exploring new ways and opportunities to help students facing these issues.

“Chancellor Timothy White commissioned me to do this in 2015 and since then the CSU [system] has been building programs, advocating and developing policies not only within the system but in the state to support our students,” said Crutchfield.

California State University, Long Beach has a program called the student emergency intervention and wellness program.

This program, as defined by the CSULB website, “is a comprehensive initiative that identifies and immediately serves some of CSULB’S most at-risk students which include our displaced students, food insecure students and students experiencing an emergency situation or crisis.”

And the program goals are simple, they want to provide students with immediate support during an unexpected crises or emergency and also provide them with ongoing counseling and assistance via on-campus resources and Long Beach community social services.

To be eligible a student must be enrolled at CSULB, be able to demonstrate urgent financial need with proper documentation, must have tried all forms of financial assistance and have a serious living displacement.

The program also offers more resources, such as job opportunities, hygiene services, assistance on the CalFresh Outreach Program, and an ASI Beach Pantry. This assistance is crucial to students who may be unsure of where their next meal may come from or those unaware of where they will be sleeping that night.

However, many students at California State University, Long Beach aren’t aware of all the resources CSULB has.

“I was made aware of our school pantry only after reading an article about it in the school newspaper,” said Bryan Aparicio, senior at CSULB. “Our school has a problem relaying messages to the student body as a whole and it shows when students aren’t aware of the many resources to them.”

And these resources aren’t available only to California State University Long Beach students, but most if not all of these resources are also available to the other 22 campuses. This is due to the Basic Needs Initiative in the California State University system that takes a complete look at the students’ necessities both inside and outside the classroom.

The Basic Needs Initiative program began after a study of the CSU campuses in 2016 led to alarming findings in student food and home insecurity, lack of school pantries and that only five campuses incorporated students’ need as a direct part of a student’s success.

From the use of Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) on six campuses to a majority of campuses providing fresh fruit and vegetables to students, the CSU Basic Needs Initiative has a variety of resources available to students in the CSU System.

Yet, some students are forced to find out about these resources on their own.

“I know of the school’s food pantry because they spoke about it at orientation and that’s the only time I heard the school talk about it,” said Destiny Torres, Junior at California State University, Dominguez Hills. “But I had to go online myself to learn more about how to access it and use it.”

Food insecurity is at an alarming rate in today’s students, but the CSU system is finding various ways to support their students and their struggles with on-campus resources.

 francisco@beachcomber.news

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