The Hope Center for Student Basic Needs is advancing policy solutions that will strengthen coalition building and advocacy by expanding student access to food and nutrition benefits, as well as supporting new research on student basic needs trends nationwide with support from a grant awarded by The Joyce Foundation.
Building on previous collaboration between The Hope Center and Joyce Foundation, the grant will support ongoing efforts to protect and expand college student access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Currently, two-thirds of students who are likely eligible for SNAP do not receive benefits, largely due to confusing federal rules and bureaucracy, and insufficient assistance to connect students with aid. Students, families, and state governments are also contending with eligibility cuts, new requirements like cost-sharing provisions for SNAP that, taken together, threaten to rapidly exacerbate the student hunger crisis and hike tuition and fees.
Across the country, students are navigating rising costs, growing economic precarity, and an increasingly uncertain public policy environment. This grant will help ensure that colleges, states, and policymakers have both the data and policy guidance they need to improve students’ access to nutritious food and boost their overall basic needs security.
Bryce McKibben
Senior Director of Policy & Advocacy, The Hope Center
The grant will allow Hope Center to expand its coalition-building, educational outreach, and technical assistance capacity to ensure guidance for student-centered federal reforms, and to support states and campuses navigating changes to the policy landscape. The grant also provides critical support to publish new findings from The Hope Center’s Student Basic Needs Survey, one of the nation’s leading sources of data on basic needs insecurity among college students.
“Students cannot succeed academically if they are struggling to meet their basic needs,” said Courtney Lundquist, Program Officer at The Joyce Foundation. "The Hope Center is a critical partner in making college more affordable and accessible. We’re proud to support their important work to shed light on student needs and expand access to the resources and stability students need to persist and thrive."