food insecurity is a reality and far too

many New Jersey households but hunger

can be especially acute among college

students trying to simultaneously study

and work the required hours to qualify

for food assistance Raven Santana

reports on a measure that would help

college students still chasing the dream

it's hard to study when you're hungry

but that's the reality for thousands of

college students across our state like

Bergen Community College sophomore

Malaya grant honestly is extremely hard

because there have been times where I

would only have five dollars in my

pocket and would barely be able to get

anything to eat according to a survey

published this year by researchers at

Temple University and the Wisconsin hope

lab of the four hundred and nineteen

thousand students attending college in

our state about one-third or one hundred

and thirty nine thousand are food

insecure among community college

students forty two percent are facing

hunger Grant says in order to stay

afloat she uses the campuses food pantry

oh it's just nice to know that I have a

safe place where I can go and it's not

like a crowd of people walking around

these are students that may already be

living in low-income households or

working low-income households they are

oftentimes the first person in their

family to go to school first generation

in this country

Lisa Pitts is the outreach director for

hunger free New Jersey she says in 2014

at the request of Bergen Community

College the center for food action

opened a site on the college's Paramus

campus and we have students who come and

they bring an extra backpack so that

when they leave the pantry they have the

food in the backpack so nobody sees them

carrying grocery bags out of the school

without food pantries like this one on

campus students may be forced to delay

their education to make ends meet a lot

of our students have you know have

issues with money so either getting here

by uber or the bus or things of that

nature versus you know eating you know

or buying books they will pick those

things over eating first according to

the research just twenty percent of New

Jersey college students suffering from

food insecurity received food stamps

that's because federal rules require

college students to work twenty

hours weekly to qualify a heavy burden

for a student who is managing a

full-time academic schedule or a

non-traditional student who has a family

to take care of we have kids who are you

know working 32 hours a week taking 18

hours of classes how can they meet

certain requirements Fortis Assemblyman

Benji Wimberly is one of the sponsors of

the campus free hunger act it's part of

a larger anti-hunger bill package which

will be heard in the assembly Human

Services Committee on November 29th at

Bergen Community College Reeve and

Santana NJTV news

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