How Food Insecurity Affects Academic Performance

Many college students go to school full-time and work a part-time or full-time job to afford the cost of tuition. Because of the high cost of living plus tuition, most of the time college students don't have enough funds to afford adequately nutritious food. As a result of this, students become food insecure. Studies have been performed to see just how prevalent food insecurity is among college students and how it is affecting their academic performance. 

In a study done at a New Jersey University, a survey was sent out to 13,897 undergraduate students and 2,055 responded. The results of the surveys showed that 48% of students were food insecure (Weaver et al., 2020). The surveys showed that women, African Americans, and Hispanics were more likely to be food insecure (Weaver et al., 2020). Being food insecure, "increased the odds of being among the lower 10% GPA and reduced the odds of being among the upper 10% GPA" (Weaver et al., 2020). From this study, it can be concluded that food insecurity is associated with academic performance.

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