Framingham State to open food pantry for students - News ... - MetroWest Daily News

Framingham State to open food pantry for students - News ... - MetroWest Daily News

Jonathan Dame Daily News Staff @DameReports

FRAMINGHAM – Framingham State University will open a free food pantry after a survey showed that some students struggle to afford food, are skipping meals or suffering in class because of hunger.

At least 75 students are likely to use the pantry, the survey found, while another 138 students said they were unsure if they would. Nearly 500 students (out of around 6,000 total) voluntarily took the online survey in fall 2016.

“I see need from many different groups of students,” said Michelle Yestrepsky, FSU’s coordinator of student services. “Food and housing insecurity on college campuses is definitely a nationwide problem. It affects public and private schools.”

The pantry will open in an under-used bike room in West Hall, the school’s newest residential building. The pantry will be open to all members of the FSU community, with no proof of need required, Yestrepsky said.

In Massachusetts, 24 of the 29 public college campuses operate a food pantry, according to state Department of Higher Education figures from January.

In 2016, 38 percent of public campuses reported to the department that their students were experiencing greater food insecurity compared to the previous year; 34 percent said more students were using pantries on campus or nearby.

“Higher education institutions, we just think of them often as these places where people go to study and learn and move on,” said Carlos Santiago, the commissioner of higher education. “Actually they are playing significant support roles in the lives of these students, so that they can succeed in college.”

Santiago said he started noticing a pattern a few years ago. Visiting schools, he would ask students about their obstacles. Tuition and the cost of textbooks were often cited, but a handful of students told a different story.

“Students talking about how they would go hungry from time to time,” Santiago recalled. “Other students would talk about how they might be homeless from time to time.”

At FSU, 41 students said their ability to afford food "moderately" or "very much" affected their performance in class, while another 69 students said it "somewhat" affected performance.

FSU runs an emergency meal fund that allows students to buy a meal in the dining hall when needed. Yestrepsky said the fund is used monthly.

Students who live in campus housing are required to purchase a meal plan as part of their tuition. FSU is working with its food services provider, Sodexo, to allow students to donate one meal a week to the emergency fund, Yestrepsky said.

The state Department of Higher Education is surveying all public college students on food and housing insecurity, in partnership with the Wisconsin HOPE Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The results of the survey, believed to be the first statewide assessment of its kind for a public college system, should be available in spring 2018. In February, U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey urged the federal Government Accounting Office to undertake a nationwide study of the topic.

“We don’t see the need disappearing,” Santiago said. “We actually see probably the need growing.”

Jonathan Dame can be reached at 508-626-3919 or jdame@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @DameReports