Maureen McCoy – Resilient college students? Only if they have enough to eat.

In Making Waves Conversations by Mark Sylvester
 / 
11/10/2021

Resilient college students? Only if they have enough to eat. How can we feed the college students of the future?

We live in a nation with more than enough food, but the numbers of hungry people continue to rise, with some of the greatest jumps in the college student population. The government supports food programs in preschool through high school. Still, as soon as a student steps onto a college campus, in which they are paying for school for perhaps the first time, they also need to figure out the sourcing of food amongst many other expenses.  Unfortunately, food is the last thing a student may focus on after paying for rent, tuition, and books.  This lack of healthy food leads to a student without the brainpower to get through their studies and can lead to the difficult decision to drop out.  We can do better.

Maureen McCoy

MS, RD.  Senior Lecturer of Nutrition at Arizona State University

Maureen is a Senior Lecturer in the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University (ASU).  Here, she is the Degree Director for the Food and Nutrition Entrepreneurship Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Applied Science degrees.  She also co-leads the Health Policy and Equity Affinity Network, seeking external funding for research projects and publishing articles in health affairs blogs. However, one of her true passions is serving as the faculty advisor for the Pitchfork Pantry (food pantry for ASU students). With this group, she works with external partners to bring food and resources closer to campus for students who lack transportation and money to purchase these items.


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