When he was a freshman living in the dorms at the University of Northern Colorado, Ryan Wood would sometimes face a choice late at night: Would he be exhausted the next day, or should he steal some dinner from the communal refrigerator?
鈥淚 was so hungry at times,鈥� Wood said, 鈥渢hat I couldn鈥檛 sleep.鈥�
Wood no longer has to make that impossible decision. He volunteers at the, UNC鈥檚 food bank for students, but he remains a client. Many students in universities across Colorado face the same occasional hunger: More than half of UNC鈥檚 students, 57%, said in a survey that they faced food insecurity.
UNC hopes to address student hunger by opening a new Center for Student Well Being at the start of the spring semester that will triple the size of the Bear Pantry and will help students find other resources, such as federal food benefits, to keep them full.
The survey suggests that a majority of UNC鈥檚 students don鈥檛 always have access to food, or they might skip snacks, or rely a little too much on dollar deals at fast-food joints or eat too much of one food, like cans of soup.
The reasons vary widely, and just like those who use a food bank, they鈥檙e not always strictly about money.
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