2018 Conference

Poster Presentation

The increasing financial cost of attending a university in the United States forces many students to compromise their quality of life in order to fund their education. For many students, this means struggling with food insecurity. Food insecurity is defined as the “economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food (USDA).” Currently, there is a lack of academic studies examining how college students are impacted by food insecurity. My research study will examine how students enrolled at the University of Central Florida experience food insecurity and estimate the prevalence of food insecurity across the university population. Drawing on the few previous studies that have been conducted to date, I will design a quantitative survey questionnaire. This survey will include the federal food insecurity assessment module as well as questions that are specific to a college population such as impact on grades, housing quality, and so forth. The survey will be distributed to students at UCF via the online surveying system, Qualtrics, and I will conduct confidential surveys in person with willing students using Knights Helping Knights Pantry, the on-campus food pantry for students. Additionally, I will be conducting face-to-face interviews with students who wish to share their experience with food insecurity. After data have been collected, I will conduct analyses to assess the levels of food insecurity at UCF and provide specific analyses comparing how students using the pantry are coping compared to those who are not using the pantry. These findings will contribute towards efforts to better assist students across the campus and contribute to the small extant literature on food insecurity among college students.