Project Vision 21

Francisco Miraval

One of my students recently sent me an email with this question: How come those who are hungry to learn are also literally hungry? It was not a rhetorical question. It was a real question. However, I do not think the student (originally from Mexico) expected or expects any answer.

I have asked myself many times a similar question: How come that in the United States in the 21^st century there are hungry people? Hunger is unacceptable anywhere, now or in the past. But we live at a time and place where hunger should not exist. However, it does exist. In Colorado, where I live, 270,000 children suffer from hunger or food insecurity and almost one in five adults faces those same conditions.

Having said that, is it possible for a college student to experience real hunger? I asked that question to a number of “experts.” First, they denied the problem. Then, they said that if a college student is hungry that is because he or she created that situation.

Those “experts” explained that some college students do not know how to manage their time, so they never have time to prepare food or to buy meals. O they do not like to eat alone, so they simply do not eat. Or they cannot control their spending and credit cards, so they do not have money to buy groceries.

I agree those are real issues and I know that is what happening to many college students. However, during 2013 I have seen several cases, including the case of the student who sent me the questions I quoted above, that cannot be explain by the inability of the student to manage his or her time or credit cards. Quite the opposite, I have seen hungry college students.

Several months ago, for example, a student in one of my classes did not want to answer any questions. She was looking down and holding her stomach with both hands. During a break, she took a doughnut and ate it in two bites. Clearly she was hungry. A short conversation confirmed my suspicion.

For that student, the choice was to pay for college or to buy enough food. Her desire to build a better future so she could help her family kept her in college. Her personal modesty prevented her from asking for help. For her, hunger was a very real and painful experience.

In another case, a student was working two jobs to help her family and attending classes full time. Eating, for her, was a sporadic activity.

At the same time, as my student mentioned in her question, there are those other college students who are not hungry, and they never experience the hunger (metaphorically speaking) for learning. Could it be possible to balance the needs and desires of both groups?

I don’t know. I only know that you can only solve a problem once you acknowledge the problem exists. Unfortunately, few people acknowledge hunger is a reality, even among college students.