“I ended up in the ER because I passed out walking across campus. I hadn’t eaten in two days.”

These words were shared with me during an interview conducted in collaboration with my co-author, Susi Keefe, the Cross Campus Food Access Coalition and a graduate public health research course at St. Catherine University.

The student attends a Twin Cities private college — a place where it’s often assumed students are sheltered from hunger. In reality, many private college students struggle with food insecurity. A cross-campus survey of more than 1,300 students at St. Catherine, Augsburg and Hamline universities revealed that 54% reported going hungry.

In our spring 2025 qualitative research, food insecurity was evident on campus. Another student shared, “I was too hungry to focus during a 30

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