Abstract
Food insecurity and mental health: The first phase of new initiative to provide freshly made free lunch to college students
Maya Steel (Miyairi), PhD and Maeve Murphy
DePaul University, Chicago, IL
APHA 2025 Annual Meeting and Expo
A recent systematic review estimated that 41.4% of college students experience food insecurity, and other studies have alarmed the food insecurity associated with mental health conditions among college students. To explore the need for resources among racially diverse college students on campus, we first assessed the prevalence of food insecurity and mental health conditions and how food insecurity was associated with psychological distress, loneliness, and eating disorders (EDs). After receiving 172 completed survey responses (Female = 137, Male = 35), descriptive data showed 41% of our participants experienced food insecurity, 46% responded yes to the loneliness scale, 17% were distressed, 12% had the current EDs treatment status, and 44% showed Binge Eating behaviors. Using chi-square tests, we found that food insecurity was statistically associated with participants’ year in college (p = .045), history of counseling (p = .006), levels of distress (p = .004), food restriction for shape or weight (p = .007), and lack of interest in eating or food (p = .003). After we confirmed that our campus must do more to address food insecurity and mental health for our students, as a second step, we collaborated with a soup kitchen located next to our campus to provide free lunch bags three days a week during the autumn quarter in 2024. Approximately 20-25 college students used the service weekly for 10 weeks. This presentation will illustrate our preliminary data, the new free lunch initiative with fresh food supplies on campus, and lessons learned from the first initiative.
Advocacy for health and health education Assessment of individual and community needs for health education Diversity and culture Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs