community college students struggling

with hunger have also struggled to fit

in work requirements to get SNAP

benefits even as they study now the

Murphy administration has come up with a

workaround for those still chasing the

dream here's Raven Santana the three

major costs in college are tuition room

and board but the financial strain of

all three can leave some students unable

to afford at least one of these the

Commissioner of the State Department of

Human Services says for community

college students it's usually food we

see the data that suggests that as many

as 40% of students in community colleges

struggle with food insecurity and today

is really about recognizing that college

affordability means more than tuition

for some families it means making sure

they have access to vital services like

food assistance 25 percent of our

students are from families that earn

less than $30,000 a year and 53 percent

of our students report wording working

20 hours or more per week and a third of

our students report working more than 30

hours per week so that that balance they

try to strike between going to school

work obligations down delegation is very

difficult and the money is stretched

thin determined to end the cycle of food

insecurity in campuses like Middlesex

County College Johnson announced its

expansion of snap eligibility to

community college students federal rules

require college students to work 20

hours weekly to qualify for snap 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 the state is now

allowing community college courses to

count towards work requirements for snap

now we're gonna say that all Community

College in New Jersey Career and

Technical Education programs meet that

training or program requirement the

County College's counsel tells us that's

an estimated 67 thousand students who

are in that program who are lower-income

who meet the eligibility requirements

for snap will get access to snap the

goal of the initiative is with more New

Jersey students able to receive snap

there's a better chance they'll go on to

complete their education and then land

higher paying jobs the numbers are

increasing as families try

to move up the economic ladder and get a

better job we see a lot of families

turning to education programs technical

schools like middlesex Community College

and its College food pantries like this

one that allows students to focus less

on where their next meal will come from

and more on their studies I have used it

before and my reason for being

passionate about this is because I

realized that everyone does go through

things and sometimes they do kind of

have that that amount of pride and it

kind of prevents us from accepting help

when when it when it's there everyone

can walk in here and feel comfortable

because everyone needs food

everyone gets hungry at one point or

another since September 82 students have

visited the campuses Food Pantry 160

times the new policy change will be

effective early next month at Middlesex

County College Raven Santana and J TV

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