There is uncertainty that some students experience when it comes to deciding their next meal. Whether it may come from the Zorn Dining Commons (DC), Lloyds Marketplace, The Hungry Owl, Hoot n’ Scoot or off campus, food insecurity is a major concern for college students.
An estimated 3.8 million college students experience food insecurity across the country, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) analysis of the Department of Education’s National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) in 2020.
While the study was conducted five years ago, The Equinox believes this continues to be a pressing issue into the 2025-2026 academic year.
If you are a student who lives on campus, which is 64 percent of the 2,867 students enrolled in the fall semester of 2024, according to the U.S. News and World Report, you must purchase a meal plan when selecting housing. There is no option to go without a meal plan at all unless you live off campus.
First-year students living on campus are required to get the Owl Access meal plan, which gets you unlimited swipes at the Zorn Dining Commons and costs $2,660 per semester. On top of tuition, paying this much for a meal plan without the option to get fewer meal swipes is not feasible for many.
The White 100 meal plan is less expensive but only available to upper-classmen or students with 60 or more credits. The Red 40 meal plan is the most cost-effective option besides no meal plan at all and is only available to students with 90 or more credits at a cost of $677 for 40 meal swipes.
Included in each meal plan are two bonus meals per semester, which can be used for a guest accompanying you to the Dining Commons. The Equinox believes the two bonus swipes are nothing short of disappointing. If other higher education institutions are allotting students more flexibility when it comes to meal plans, it would be reasonable to ask KSC Dining to step up for those struggling with food insecurity.
On occasions such as Thanksgiving, the DC will do a “pay it forward” act with meal swipes, allowing students to forward unused swipes to students who may not otherwise be able to afford the cost or have run out of meal swipes altogether. However, we have not yet discovered how those pay-it-forward meal swipes get used by students. Students deserve transparency in regards to where those swipes go; the student should be able to trust that a donated swipe will get used by someone who needs it.
Instead of the occasional pay it forward, which seems to only be for show of caring, students should be able to donate meal swipes however they please. Similar to if you were to pay for the person behind you at a drive-thru window, students are paying for these meal plans and they should have the freedom to decide how that money is spent.
With students lacking trust in Chartwells and the DC or simply not having the time for a sit-down meal, hundreds if not thousands of meal swipes will go unused each academic year. The leftover swipes carry over from the fall semester to the spring, but once the academic year has ended, the meal swipes seemingly disappear into thin air. This is money students could use towards feeding themselves or others if that is their wish.
If students are not going to receive money back for unspent swipes, there are certainly other students who would benefit from those meals.
Student IDs are acting like a micromanaged gift card, only available to use at the on-campus dining options, with limited swipes only available to use in one location, only for yourself and maybe one friend on two occasions. If students pay for their meal plans, why does Chartwells get to decide how it gets used?
Plymouth State University (PSU) and Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) both collaborate with Swipe Out Hunger, a non-profit dedicated to “powering the movement to end college student hunger.”
“We collaborate with colleges, legislators, and the greater community to address student food insecurity by championing hunger solutions, building an active network of campuses and partners, and evolving the narrative around today’s college students. Since 2010, Swipe Out Hunger has enabled 20.5 million meals across more than 900 campuses throughout North America,” according to the Swipe Out Hunger about page.
In order to apply to join this program, all that is required is for Keene State’s president to fill out the form.
The Equinox commends The Hungry Owl and the KSC chapter of the Food Recovery Network for helping to combat food insecurity on campus. However, there is only so much that these two organizations can do to tackle such a massive issue facing not only KSC but colleges nationwide. It is vital to see continued and expanded collaboration with KSC Dining on initiatives to combat hunger to create long-lasting change that shows an elevated level of care for those in need on campus.
