POLICY BREAF OUTLINE

1. INTRODUCTION

a) Audience
– Deans of CUNY schools/institutes/colleges
– Supporting Institutes (Healthy CUNY and UFPI)
[same brief addressed to both audiences]

b) Title – “Food Insecurity among CUNY students: Is it worse than imagined?”

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c) Executive summary

i) Problem statement
o General problem
low access of food pantries contributing to high food insecurity among CUNY
students.

o Country engagement
– The state/federal is providing budget specifically for
CUNY students food assistance programs.
– Governor Cuomo’s “No student goes hungry” policy
is committed to reduce the problem.
– The CUNY Chancellor increasing eligibility to
undocumented immigrants.

ii) Approach
o Failures of current policies
– Lack of awareness of food insecurity indicators
– Unawareness of the availability of food pantries.
– Unavailability of food pantries in some campuses.
– Inconvenient ways of accessing the assistance ie food
pantries being located in administration
buildings/areas where students feel embarrassed being
seen by other students.
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o Specific issue addressed - Lack of awareness

o Reasons for this specific issue to be addressed

– Students not accessing food pantries because they are
unaware of its availability is the reason why food
insecurity at CUNY is higher than perceived.

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“No student should go hungry”
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 – Additionally, most students will not know if they are
food insecure unless given the indicators of food
insecurity as questions.

iii) Proposed course of action

o How to address the issue
– provide awareness of food insecurity to all CUNY
students.

o Reason of Urgency
– increasing the awareness will prompt students into
knowing where they stand:-
– both if they are food insecure
– and whether they are eligible for the food assistance
program.

2. MAIN BODY

a) Status of the issue

Through the partnership of the government: -
i) State - Cuomo no student goes hungry,
ii) Federal - by providing budget for the food pantries
iii) CUNY system& institutes (Healthy CUNY and UFPI),

food insecurity among CUNY students has been able to decrease over time by
i) providing a variety of foods in food pantries (convenience, ready to eat, fresh, frozen,
canned)
ii) introducing garden programs ie BCC gardening and recipe learning program.

b) Root cause of the issue

i) Lack of awareness of the student themselves (whether or not
they are actually food insecure)
ii) Lack of awareness of the availability of food pantries
iii) Lack of awareness of the short- and long-term effects of food
insecurity3
iv) Lack of awareness of their eligibilities for the food 4assistance
program.

c) The food pantry introduction has been successful in providing food to the food
insecure students, but it has had its flows ie some students were not eligible. An article from one
of the CUNY students titles “Books or Lunch” shows this in depth as a hungry ineligible CUNY
student is torn between buying food or her books.

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“No student, should go hungry”
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 d) This is influenced mostly because of some laws like income/immigration status/
participating in federal-work that are set which limit the accessibility and awareness of food
pantries to the students.

c) Available options
i. Doing a survey in all CUNY campuses to access the severity of
the problem.
ii. Providing important information on the food pantry ie
eligibilities, location
iii. Increasing awareness of food insecurity ie effects of skipping
lunch/eating less portions than required.

3. RECOMMENDATIONS

a) Specific course of action – Provide awareness to increase the access to the food
pantry and ultimately reduce food insecurity.

b) Steps to be taken

1. Conduct an online food insecurity survey –Deans of schools-(school government/IT)

2. Provide awareness of the food pantries through school boards/tvs/website ie Healthy
CUNY/UFPI5
3. Use willing ambassadors to spread word of the availability of the resources/assistance-
Students (receiving food-assistance)
4. Provide information of the eligibilities, and the specific food pantry locations-
UFPIHealthy CUNY
5. Collect feedback of the food pantry access and or the foods preferred/not preferred-
Healthy CUNY/UFPI
6. Provide at the very least a small room in those campuses without food pantries, so as the
students can access – Deans of school

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“No student, should go hungry”