5 things: #RealCollege survey from Temple University’s Hope Center for College, Community and Justice shows significant food and housing insecurity among college students nationwide

Each Friday Food Management compiles a list that highlights five things you probably missed in the onsite foodservice news that week and why you should care about them.

Here’s your list for the week of February 24:

1. Survey finds 39% of college student respondents are food-insecure

The fifth annual #RealCollege survey documenting food and/or housing insecurity affecting college students has been released, and its findings reveal a real and continuing problem across the country. The 2019 survey, led by the Hope Center for College, Community and Justice at Temple University, was completed by more than 167,000 students at 227 community colleges and four-year colleges and universities in 44 states and the District of Columbia.

Of those answering, 17% reported being homeless at some point in the previous year while 39% said they were food-insecure and 46% said they faced some level of housing insecurity. Reasons that college students are facing insecurity in basic needs include the failure of financial aid to keep up with the cost of living and hesitancy among some employers to hire students who may have complicated schedules.

Read more: Housing and food insecurity affecting many college students, new data says

2. UMD grad sues university over being served food containing gluten

Related:5 things: Study claims global food waste is way worse than Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations previously thought

Coming on the heels of the University of Kentucky being sued over dairy allergy discrimination, a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD) is now suing the university for alleged negligence when it came to her allergy to gluten. The student, Hannah Smith, says that before she committed to UMD she and her parents met in person with the chef and dining services director to explain the severity of her reactions to gluten and to make sure the university could accommodate her special dietary needs.

Though her meals were specially prepared weekly and set aside, there were four instances where the university allegedly failed to leave out gluten and she had to be hospitalized after one episode, according to the lawsuit. It also alleges that her food was set aside in the back kitchen of the dining hall where it was openly exposed to other foods that contained gluten.

Read more: University of Maryland, College Park graduate sues university for being served food with gluten

3. Coast Guard declines to deliver school food to isolated Alaska district

Regional ferry service on Alaska’s Marine Highway System (MHS) has been shut down until at least some time in March due to a number of factors ranging from mismanagement and inadequate maintenance to revenue shortfalls caused by a strike last year. The result is that some remote school districts that depend on the MHS have to make alternate plans to get their school meal supplies, one of them being Angoon, located on Admiralty Island south of Juneau.

Related:5 things: University of Pennsylvania dining services gives Black History Month another try on campus

School cafeteria food supplied by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and stored at 13 distribution hubs around Alaska, from which schools in remote areas of the state then transport it the rest of the way to their communities, with some like Angoon using the MHS.

With that option unavailable, Angoon reached out to the U.S. Coast Guard, requesting they deliver those goods to Angoon, but according to a Coast Guard spokesman, the request was denied because it says commercial alternatives are available.

However, according to local businessmen in Angoon, those alternatives are spotty and expensive, as Angoon is receiving goods by seaplane—at 85 cents a pound—plus those receiving the goods have to charter landing craft to meet the plane and then make deliveries. The intermittent service also means it’s difficult to maintain supplies of perishables.

Read more: Angoon school asks Coast Guard to make food delivery during ferry shutdown

4. School cafeteria manager allegedly flashes gun during road rage argument

Jasmine London, the cafeteria manager at Croft Middle School in Nashville, has been placed on administrative leave after a parent told police she displayed a gun during a road rage incident. The parent, who was not identified in this report, said she was driving two children to Croft when London allegedly cut her off. The two then "exchanged words" during which London allegedly flashed a pistol, though she never pointed it at her, the parent stated in an arrest affidavit.

London told police that while she did participate in the road rage incident, she did not have a gun and what she brandished was just her cell phone. Police did not find a gun, but London was still charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

The district issued a statement saying, “The assault allegations described in the complaint by the family member of an MNPS student are unacceptable and the cafeteria employee has been placed on administrative leave pending further investigation.”

Read more: Cafeteria manager at Croft Middle School on leave after assault arrest

5. Kroger gives $100,000 to children’s hospital to fight food insecurity

Retail grocery chain Kroger recently made a donation of $100,000 to Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands to support new initiatives to alleviate hunger for Texas Children’s families. The hospital plans to introduce a screening tool to identify families at risk for hospital food insecurity and develop an intervention bundle intended to alleviate hospital and household food insecurity in identified families following a study that found hospital food insecurity in 43% of the caregivers of hospitalized children.

Read more: Kroger Donates $100,000 to Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands

Bonus: A tour of the Farehouse Market in the Sterling Bay developed multitenant complex in Chicago

Contact Mike Buzalka at [email protected]