Erie County Times

This past week, First Lady Frances Wolf met with legislators and students from all over the state to discuss food insecurity among students at the state capitol.

According to a release on March 29, Wolf was joined with Senate Democratic Appropriations Chairman Vincent Hughes, Senator Carolyn Comitta, House Democratic Leader Joanna McClinton and Rep. Jennifer O’Mara, along with about 100 college students and administrators representing Swipe Out Hunger. Swipe Out Hunger CEO Rachel Sumekh was pleased to see support of the state officials in what is an ongoing concern.

“It speaks volumes to have the First Lady support our coalition of more than 100 college students across Pennsylvania and other community partners to address student food insecurity through the Hunger Free Campus Bill,” said Sumekh. “We’re thrilled to galvanize and organize together to ensure no student has to choose between food and their education.” 

Students representing Swipe Out Hunger came from Bloomsburg University, Carnegie Mellon University, Community College of Allegheny County, California University of Pennsylvania, DeSales University, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, Millersville University, Point Park University, Prism Career Institute, Robert Morris University, Temple University, University of Pittsburgh, University of Pennsylvania, West Chester University, Widener University and Wilson College. The organization works with leaders on legislation and policies, as well as ensuring student have access to meals. The organization represents 400 colleges in each state, and has served 2.5 million meals.

Gov. Tom Wolf has proposed a budget for 2022-23 that includes allocating $1 million for a grant program to fight hunger among students. This would help restock or create food pantries, increase outreach about food assistance programs, gather data and hire social workers for help. It is closely related to the Hunger-Free Campus bills proposed by Sen. Comitta and Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta.

“No student should have to go hungry to pursue the dream of higher education and career success,” Sen. Comitta said. “Studies and firsthand stories tell us that food and basic needs insecurity is a growing program on college campuses. Common sense tells us it’s a solvable one. And we’re working to take steps to solve it in Pennsylvania. I thank the First Lady for her commitment to ending hunger on campus, Governor Wolf for supporting the Hunger-Free Campus Initiative in his budget plan, and our students and anti-hunger organizations for their ongoing advocacy efforts.”

Sen. Hughes said that the Covid-19 pandemic exposed the “unspoken secret” that there are college students who are food insecure. He thanked the leadership of the Wolfs in combatting this issue, saying there is an opportunity to make a real impact and reverse the number of students are who food insecure in college.

“College students face enough challenges without needing to worry about where their next meal will come from,” Hughes said.

According to the release there are estimates that 36% of college students know someone who dropped out of school due to food insecurity during the pandemic, with 52% who faced housing or food insecurity in 2020 not getting support because they didn’t know how to.

“A student who lacks access to sufficient and healthy food simply cannot learn and participate as they otherwise would,” said Pennsylvania State University’s Vice President of Student Affairs Damon Sims. “It has been heartening to see the commitment of our student leaders to meaningfully address this fundamental issue in partnership with the Penn State administration. The funding proposed by Governor Wolf would make an enormous difference in our collective effort to overcome a challenge faced by too many students across the Commonwealth. We can all do better by these students, and I know we shall.”