UOW students report food insecurity at more than 50 per cent as costs crunch worsens

One in five of them are experiencing what is called severe food insecurity, Professor Karen Charlton said, classified as when a student has to skip meals because they can't afford it.

This rate of food insecurity was the worst of any campus in Australia, Professor Charlton said as she spoke at the Dietitians Australia conference in Melbourne this week.

Male students and those not living at home with parents were at significantly higher risk of food insecurity.

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Professor Charlton, a public health nutritionist at the School of Medical, Indigenous and Health Sciences at the University of Wollongong, said when it came down to a choice of "heating or eating", eating often loses out.

"Results suggest a high occurrence of food insecurity and poor dietary quality in university students," Professor Charlton told the conference.

"Despite high levels of engagement with the campus food pantry, the poor diet quality of food insecure students suggests an urgent need for more comprehensive university-led interventions to improve support students' dietary intake and nutrition-related wellbeing."

The survey of almost 200 students last year found 54 per cent were classified as food insecure, comprising 14 per cent mild, 23 per cent moderate and 18 per cent experiencing severe food insecurity.

"Mild" is when students have anxiety about being able to afford food, so are eating low quality and variety, "moderate" means they have had to make some changes to their diet because they can't afford more nutritious food, and "severe" means unable to afford sufficient food, skipping meals or going hungry.

"The increasing cost of living crisis is hitting vulnerable groups very hard and students are one of those groups," Professor Charlton said.

"With other costs such as rent, electricity, bills, often the food budget is the first thing to be shrunk."

As rents and bills rise and many survive on a tight budget with instant noodles or chip rolls would know, the campus diet is not always the healthiest.

Professor Charlton said there were some good initiatives on campus from the University of Wollongong such as the "Pulse Pantry" which opened during the height of the pandemic and had received strong engagement.

And while the student diet and their individual economic circumstances are not the total responsibility of a university, Professor Charlton said she wants to help implement more action locally.

"If people are trying to study, they need to have not just enough food, but nutritious food," she said.

"Universities try to support their students to have the best learning environment.

"What I would love to do is to try and set up some indoor, maybe vertical farming, around residences where we can actually grow some fresh veges that students can just have access to because that's the problem - getting fresh food. It's expensive what fruits and vegetables cost."

Professor Charlton is beginning a fellowship over the next four years to to do exactly that - look at a more sustainable and healthy local food system in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven, and how to achieve it.

Food chain resilience is high on the list, after the pandemic showed how Australia's over-reliance on two supermarket chains sets up vulnerability when something goes wrong.