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In recent years, food insecurity in higher education has become a topic of growing concern with as many as two in three community college students struggling with access to healthy and affordable food. Research has shown that food insecurity is linked to difficulties with physical and mental health, academic struggles, and poor college retention rates.
To support community college students’ understanding of and activism regarding food insecurity, Rositsa Ilieva, Director of Food Policy at the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute at CUNY SPH, Kingsboro Community College Professor Tanzina Ahmed, and student leaders at Kingsboro created and played three educational games designed to increase student understanding of food insecurity, help them envision food justice-related campus interventions, and reduce the stigma of using campus food resources.
Students participating in the intervention reported learning new information about food security and becoming more likely to use campus food programs; a few also reported becoming interested in on-campus food justice activism.
“Other students, researchers, and faculty members can draw upon our strategies to advocate for more student awareness of food insecurity and food justice within campuses,” Ilieva says.
