Statistics show that community college students face financial and life circumstances that many four-year, traditional college students don’t. Community colleges receive $8,800 less per student than larger institutions, which widens the gap and weighs heavily on their success. One major disparity is food insecurity for the forty percent – 7.1 million – of the nation’s college enrollment is the community college population.
According to the Hope Center at Temple University, numbers show that hunger and food insecurity is higher – 23.4% – compared to other schools. There are numerous ways and groups that aid students but the large-scale numbers are hard to combat with just one organization. The nearly $9,000 per student that’s denied for community colleges amounts to a staggering $78 billion national funding gap.
Previously, FRN focused on four-year institutions, however, after reviewing a data-driven analysis showed that communities where community colleges are historically located are typically under-resourced. They are often located are rural communities where residents don’t have access or funding for higher education or healthy food options.
Harmon shares that the research into helping colleges showed staggering numbers in how many students and their families were suffering from hunger. “We saw that community colleges are in closer proximity to communities that are experiencing hunger at a higher rate, than therefore your counterparts,” she recalls. “That was a very important data decision that we saw when we were thinking, if we're going to do food recovery, when we do food recovery, where are we going to have the biggest impact? When we worked alongside community colleges, we had a better impact to feed more people who are experiencing hunger.”
Common misconceptions include that those who struggle feeding their families are unemployed, homeless, squander money or are distrustful. Many recipients of food assistance do work, however, at lower wages that render them below the poverty line. Harmon says the high cost of living is one of many reasons why food can become a luxury when the decision to pay mortgages and rent takes precedence.
To help with these challenges, the FRN offers grants up to $5,000 to cohort members consisting of school staff and faculty members. In many cases, when cohort members return to their schools, they train students in their mission to help reduce food insecurities.
In July, FRN announced its 2026 cohort that spans across 24 institutions. These college professionals will learn the importance and technicalities of recovering and redirecting food to help students and go back into communities that face food insecurity.
They are taught to handle food at all temperatures, how to transport and gather food from farms, school and local event venues, hotels, etc., to be distributed in college cafeterias, dining halls or off-campus locations.
To span the breadth of the thousands of student and family lives they’ve impacted, FRN has more than 220 college student chapters, equaling more than 8,000 participants, work with FRN to increase food access across the nation.
