March 18
Nearly 70% of North Shore Community College students are struggling with food and/or housing insecurity. Specifically, 33% of students surveyed said they sometimes go without food, and 20% said they do not have permanent homes, higher ratings than seen nationally.
Hunger and homelessness are rising at more than a third of Massachusetts public colleges and universities. In 2016 NSCC administered a survey on Hunger and Homelessness modeled after the national Hunger/Homelessness Eradication Applied Research Tools (HEART) instrument.
“We were quite shocked and disturbed by these findings and immediately began investigating potential solutions. Students cannot study or achieve academic success if they are hungry or homeless,” said NSCC President Patricia A. Gentile. As a result this fall, in partnership with the Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB), The Open Door and Beverly Bootstraps, monthly mobile food markets are now being offered on both the Danvers and Lynn campuses. To date 70,000 pounds of food has been distributed.
In addition the college upped other existing programs which offer food vouchers to hungry students and make emergency loans possible such as Stop Hunger on Campus (SHOC) vouchers.