$2M Legislative Support Urged as Campaign Fights Campus Hunger in Massachusetts

Legislators in Massachusetts are being urged to allocate $2 million for the Hunger Free Campus Initiative in an urgent call for legislative action

Student-Led Project: Students from the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group Lead the Campaign to End Food Insecurity on Campus

Massachusetts state legislators are being urged to address the urgent problem of campus food insecurity by a group of administrators and college students. The Hunger Free Campus Initiative requests $2 million, with the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group Students leading the charge. According to a Public News Service article, they also push legislation to increase funding for current initiatives that assist low-income students at 27 state universities. Vice chair of the group Sean Simonini underlined the negative effects of hunger on students’ capacity to concentrate and achieve academically, noting that in 2019 the Commonwealth had approximately 40% of college students experiencing food insecurity, a number that was probably made worse by the epidemic.

$2M Student-Led Campaign Sparks Urgent Legislative Push to Combat Campus Hunger in Massachusetts
(PHOTO: BestColleges.com)

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Connecting Campus Food Security Programs to Academic Achievement and Labor Market Development

Simonini emphasized the connection between meeting fundamental needs and succeeding in school, stressing the significance of programs like MassReconnect and MassGrantPlus. He emphasized that efforts to alleviate food insecurity help Massachusetts’ workforce in general and critical professions like teaching and nursing in particular, in addition to benefiting individual students. The proposed funding would assist several programs, such as enhancing campus food pantries, raising student knowledge of their eligibility for WIC and SNAP benefits, and putting creative solutions like “meal-swipe” contribution systems into place to help the less fortunate.

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