13% of graduate student respondents have experienced food insecurity, according to the Graduate Student Council’s annual Quality of Life Survey. The survey, which was conducted between mid-October to early November 2024, defines food insecurity as a “lack of consistent access to a sufficient amount of affordable, nutritious food.”
The figure marks a sharp decrease in food insecurity rates from 2023, when 30% of master’s students and 27% of PhD students said they had experienced food insecurity. But according to GSC President Kevin LoGiudice GS, this discrepancy is likely the result of the survey’s low sample size: only 92 of 3,407 graduate students responded to the 2024 poll, while 353 out of 3,130 responded in 2023.
Instead, LoGiudice and other GSC executive board members said they have observed qualitative evidence suggesting the number of graduate students experiencing food insecurity has increased, rather than decreased.
Former GSC Treasurer and current Chair of Student Life Sofia Verba GS, who is responsible for stocking the graduate student food pantry, said that although GSC’s fall 2024 budget for the pantry has increased by $1,000 since the spring semester, basic items like “pasta, rice and sauces” are gone “in a week or two” instead of a full month like in previous semesters.
GSC also partners with the Brown Market Shares program to provide subsidized produce for students based on the severity of their food insecurity. That subsidy comes from outside funding GSC acquired from the Graduate School and the School of Professional Studies, according to LoGiudice. According to Verba, due to rising demands, GSC’s spending on the program this semester totals over $5,000 dollars, up from last semester’s budget of $2,000.
“We don’t know if that’s a sign that food insecurity is increasing or if we’re just doing a really good job reaching the students facing food insecurity and they’re taking advantage of the resources that we’re offering them,” LoGiudice said.
Verba cited rising costs of living as a factor in rising food insecurity among graduate students, noting that international graduate students are uniquely vulnerable to food insecurity. “We have more expenses just because we have to be in this country without a safety net — we cannot visit family for Christmas or winter break and Thanksgiving,” she said.
According to LoGiudice, food insecurity also affects a higher proportion of master’s students than PhD students since they “are paying a tuition, and most of them are not receiving a stipend” from the University.
Morgan Orlandi, a student engagement specialist at the School of Professional Studies, said addressing food insecurity among master’s students is a top priority for her because the “financial structure for doctoral students is quite different than master’s students.”
One SPS initiative Orlandi has worked on to alleviate food insecurity is a food cupboard located on the fourth floor of the School of Professional Studies building. The pantry was “designed to fill the gap” in students’ sources of food, providing items that can be grabbed quickly, such as soup, oatmeal, peanut butter and jerky. According to Orlandi, the food cupboard has distributed close to 2000 food units since it was first piloted last October.
Janaé Victoria, the SPS assistant dean of student affairs, helps food-insecure master’s students to develop short- and long-term personalized solutions. Acute needs, she noted, can be addressed through SPS E-Gap funding, which can provide on-campus meal credits. Victoria also meets individually with students to assess their needs and redirect them to resources that can help address longer-term food insecurity, such as financial aid packages and available departmental funding.
The cost of food is the number one barrier to food access, GSC’s survey shows. But transportation is another major factor. Not all grocery stores supply food meeting students’ cultural needs, and the closing of Eastside Marketplace earlier this fall has made it harder for students to find affordable grocery stores close to Providence, according to LoGiudice.
This lack of transportation to suitable grocery stores inspired the creation of Welly Wag Weekends, a Brown Emergency Medical Services pilot program that provides free weekend transportation to grocery stores beyond typical walking distance for all Brown students.
Operated by students working for BEMS, the Wellness Wagon has provided the campus community with no-cost transportation to health appointments since the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic. But since the vehicle wasn’t being used over the weekend, the agency rolled out Welly Wag Weekends in the start of October to supplement its regular activities.
Amy Sanderson, the director of emergency management for student health and wellness, said that though the service is available to all students, she conceived of the program based on initial reports of graduate student food insecurity. “It almost immediately occurred to me that if barriers to accessing affordable food were one of the problems, there was a low hanging fruit solution to that because we have this vehicle,” she said.
According to Connor Yew ’25, a campus support coordinator for BEMS, the program mainly serves graduate students and some undergraduate students. In the eight weeks since its initiation, about 50 ride requests have been made.
Lily Johnson ’25, another campus support coordinator, said that, in contrast to the agency’s usual role of responding to emergent health needs, the program “comes from a place of doing more proactive things.”
“The roots of EMS are in community support,” Sanderson said. “We have resources that other people don’t have, like vehicles, so it makes sense that we’re trying to fill those gaps and address public health concerns and needs.”
Several sources highlighted a shortage of quantitative data on campus food insecurity. Victoria described “assessing students’ needs in a more tangible way” as one of her goals for the upcoming year. “The most accurate data we have now is the tracking of E-Gap approvals and one-off requests,” she said.
“There’s a real need for graduate students to be better supported in the higher education space,” Orlandi said.
Grace Hu is a senior staff writer covering graduate student life. She is a sophomore from Massachusetts studying English and Neuroscience.
