Post-secondary students are going hungry, Vancouver Island University research suggests, and students from abroad are among those adversely affected.
Jenna Sportak and Sydney Gallant, part of the VIU community-based applied interdisciplinary research group, used a "quantitative methods approach" creating an online survey which students from all VIU campuses had access to, with 303 respondents. In addition, they visited campuses to inform students about food insecurity.
Of the students surveyed, 91 per cent worry about where their next meal will come from and 47 per cent skip meals. Further, 39 per cent who reside on-campus face food insecurity, as do 34 per cent of off-campus students, and 52 per cent of international students.
Sportak said there is a lack of culturally diverse food on campus.
"When we think about how many international students we're encouraging to come to our campus and to come and study at VIU and then to not support their dietary needs or their cultural preferences, like we don't have anything halal, anything kosher, and those are markers that we see on other university campuses that VIU currently isn't doing," she said.
Gallant agreed with her colleague, noting that international students reported higher levels of food insecurity than their domestic peers.
"When you broke it down further and asked them about which barriers they face the most, culturally appropriate food was reported as a barrier at almost 30 per cent for international students, whereas their domestic peers were less than 10," she said.
Research found cases of students dumpster-diving, eating expired food, and even stealing food.
"[It was] around four per cent of our respondents, but it is still eye opening and just crazy to think that you do have people here that need to rely on that risky behaviour of stealing possibly, or shoplifting…" Gallant said. "It's something that I think we all need to take initiative in saying that nobody needs to go to those lengths."
The students received $15,000 to conduct their research after VIU was granted $400,000 through the Embark Student Foundation major grant program, noted a press release, with money also supporting other efforts to mitigate student hunger such as the VIU Students' Union's free breakfast bar, a voucher program for students in need and a student access fund providing financial assistance for students in crisis.
The Hunger Hack challenge, which took place in February, asked students to devise creative solutions. Team Full Bellies won the challenge, earning $10,000 to carry on with its VIU Food Security Club website to share on-campus food security options.
In terms of recommendations, the researchers say it will take a collective effort. A lot of beneficial programs and initiatives are in place, but more people need to be made aware of the issue, she said.
"The conversation around food insecurity and how we talk about people who need help, we need to change that narrative so it's not a personal failing, but a campus-wide crisis…" Gallant said. "If we can create a community network here on campus, and we can have student-led initiatives and student-led programs that are funded and backed by institutions like VIU, you might actually meet the needs of people who need it the most, rather than seeing them fall through the cracks."
Food security isn't just an issue at VIU. Abby Sauchuk, director of development for Loaves and Fishes Community Food Bank, told the News Bulletin the non-profit distributed 27 per cent more food last year than the year before.
"The need has just continued to grow with the rising cost of an inflation, so the cost of the work has grown significantly, and currently we have an anticipated deficit of around $400,000 for 2025 in order to keep up," she said.
Sportak, Gallant and Meagan Sharpe will present their findings at the upcoming Congress of the Humanities and Social Services in Toronto on Thursday, June 5, at George Brown College in Toronto. Also contributing to the research were Esther Ovie, Riddhiman Saha and Kyle Wickland.
