September 2024

The Hope Center for Student Basic Needs has announced that it is the recipient of grants from The Joyce Foundation and ECMC Foundation to research and improve federal and state policy responses to student basic needs insecurity. At a time when three in five students don’t have enough to eat or a safe place to live, systemic policy change is crucial to supporting students’ postsecondary success and wellbeing.

Over the next two years, with support from the Joyce Foundation, The Hope Center will continue to educate both federal and state policymakers on basic needs reform, with a focus on reforming outdated eligibility rules for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as “food stamps.” SNAP provides significant financial assistance to alleviate food insecurity, but many people who qualify for the program do not enroll.

The “SNAP gap” is pernicious specifically among college students: 67% of potentially eligible college students do not receive the benefit. Closing the “college SNAP gap” by enrolling students who are potentially eligible for SNAP into the program—even amidst tight eligibility rules—is key to relieving widespread food insecurity among college students and enabling them to complete higher education. Our grant will support educational outreach to policymakers and partners on the SNAP student rules and barriers.  

The grant will also support Hope’s co-leadership of a national policy coalition of over 200 national, state, and local organizations, colleges and universities, researchers, and practitioners focused on student basic needs. It’s only in community that we’ll be effective in repairing one of the most unjust disparities of our time.

“Students face enormous, complex, and totally unjust barriers to meeting their basic needs, starting with the SNAP program,” said Senior Director of Policy & Advocacy Bryce McKibben. “We’re thrilled to continue partnering with the Joyce Foundation and our national coalition allies to break down these obstacles in our public benefit programs and advance systemic change for students.”

The Hope Center also received funding from the Joyce Foundation to share lessons learned and guidance for state policymakers from our growing portfolio of projects helping Great Lakes states remove basic needs insecurity as a barrier to educational attainment. For example, we will report on policy opportunities and key strategies for convening state taskforces identified through our contributions to Michigan’s Task Force for Student Basic Needs and Minnesota’s Student Basic Needs Working Group.

With the support of ECMC Foundation, Hope will assess if current federal grants to address student basic needs are sufficient and equitable. How much does the federal government grant to institutions of higher education to help them meet student basic needs? Are the funds reaching the students and institutions most in need? Are they being invested in evidence-based practices that enhance student success? Answering these questions is crucial at a time of unacceptable national need, and Hope’s award-winning multidisciplinary team of researchers and policy experts are thrilled by the opportunity to not only illuminate the problem, but ultimately drive more funding to the colleges and students most in need.  

“So many pandemic-era programs explicitly designed to support student basic needs have expired,” said Dr. Sara Abelson, assistant professor and Senior Director of Training and Education at The Hope Center. “It’s critical to know whom is being reached by the federal grants that remain available to colleges compared to what is newly known about the immense national need for such supports. Students deserve so much more.”