When you walk down Greene Street at 10 a.m., you’ll see hundreds of students brushing past, each heading to one of a number of dining halls or food trucks, and all with the same goal in mind: breakfast. But look closer and you'll notice something's missing— or someone.
Food insecurity is defined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as an “economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food,” influenced by factors such as income, employment, race and ethnicity, and disability. This pervasive issue affects people across many demographics and states, including college students, and South Carolina is no exception.
According to U.S. Department of Agriculture research on South Carolina between 2020 and 2022, 14.5% of the population was food-insecure — more than three percentage points above the national average, and the seventh highest in the country. In Richland County, nearly 14% of families are food-insecure.
Harvest Hope, a South Carolina food pantry organization with locations in the Midlands, Pee Dee and Upstate regions, is dedicated to addressing this problem. Its mission? Providing meals to people across twenty counties–27 million per year.
Erica Cheeks, the equitable access advocate for Harvest Hope, says the issue extends beyond unequal access to food and reflects a longstanding structural problem that requires deeper confrontation.
“Now, we’ve been operating since 1981. Hunger is here; hunger is going to stay here,” she said.
Cheeks emphasizes that as a community, it’s necessary to advocate for this crisis to South Carolina elected officials. She states that one of her responsibilities is spearheading this effort.
“Providing the data that we need to show them that, here are our concerns, and this is what we need, because food insecurity is not just food," she said. "There’s so many things that contribute to it. And so, you have to holistically address all of those in order to basically decrease or eliminate food insecurity.”
When it comes to governmental programs, one of the most recognizable is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which helps provide benefits to those experiencing hunger. According to the USDA, in the 2024 fiscal year, an average of over 41 million Americans (1 in 8) received SNAP benefits each month. In the 2022 fiscal year, over 600,000 South Carolinians received SNAP benefits.
Although SNAP is crucial to millions of Americans, it isn’t always reliable or widely accessible. The program itself relies on government funding, and when political gridlock or natural disasters occur, recipients suffer. This was recently seen during the longest government shutdown in American history, from Oct. 1 through Nov. 12, 2025. Concerns emerged about the defunding of SNAP, and recipients scrambled to find alternatives. Harvest Hope was among the many organizations strained by this event.
“When that hit, it was kind of a shock to us because the legislators, even the governor, were like, 'Go to the food bank.' And it’s like, we don’t have the resources to all of a sudden turn on this switch,” Cheeks said. “People don’t understand that the food bank; we rely on donations. We don’t receive money from the state. We’re not in the state budget.”
As a flood of food-insecure Americans struggled to find alternatives, and food banks took on the brunt of the influx, college students experienced significant anxiety as well. Yet, this population is often underrepresented or misjudged because of dated assumptions. A 2022 study from Front Public Health corroborates this phenomenon.
"Today, instead of the entitled persona often portrayed of college students, the reality is many college students are skipping meals or going hungry due to the inability to afford food in conjunction with all the other necessary college expenses (rent, textbooks, lab fees, tuition, etc.) and limited financial assistance."
Cheeks confirms this fact. Harvest Hope often sees college students undergo food insecurity, which she says goes against a common prejudice.
“The misconception is that, you're going to college, so you’ve got to have some money, and if you're in college, why would you be food insecure?”. According to Cheeks, the SNAP program also had little positive effect on this demographic.
“The application for SNAP and these programs, it really did not take into consideration young adults or college students. So they’re still trying to figure this out as well,” she said.
Still, in 2020, 1.1 million college students relied on SNAP benefits. More than four times that suffered from severe food insecurity. This reliance carries on today. When the Trump administration announced that it would delay SNAP benefits indefinitely during the shutdown starting Nov. 1st, college SNAP recipients panicked. Additionally, The 19th reports that marginalized and non-traditional college students experienced the most severe mental effects of the shutdown.
The shutdown created a crisis for the mental health and physical well-being of thousands of Columbia residents, according to Cheeks. For college students in the area, the consequences of sudden lapses in support like this can be formative.
“How do you make sure that, you know, college students who are trying to further themselves and become productive people in society get the jobs that are going to help them be able to sustain their families as well as contribute to their economy?” asked Cheeks. “Because if you don’t have that, what do you have?”
She believes that food insecurity among college students is an issue that requires both recognition of surrounding stigmas and boots-on-the-ground volunteerism. To those who have never come into contact with food anxiety before, she suggests several interventions.
“Do your due diligence in research, but also, take the time out to go volunteer and learn about local programs, not just the food bank, any local programs.”
Resources like Harvest Hope are making strong efforts to attack systemic food insecurity at its source while providing meals to its surrounding areas. On campus, there are options for those experiencing this crisis. Gamecock CommUnity Shop is a pantry located in the Carolina Coliseum available to students that supplies food, clothes and other critical resources.
Though the shutdown has ended, it’s crucial to recognize that programs relying on government funding can be volatile when unexpected emergencies surface. For millions of students nationwide, SNAP and other nutrition resources are means of survival and relief, not leisure. Anyone around you could be experiencing food insecurity, so it’s important to know that you’re not alone and to advocate for the stability of your peers.
