Liberty University Dining joins the campaign to Swipe Out Hunger

In 2019, food services leader Sodexo partnered with Swipe Out Hunger in the fight against food insecurity among college students. The campaign began to roll out at campuses across the country and, in late September 2021, launched at Liberty University.

Liberty University Dining Services joined forces with The Liberty University Office of Student Life, Financial Aid, ID & Campus Services, and ADS to launch and promote the program to students.

Liberty Dining donated 15,000 swipes to help commuter students who are experiencing food insecurity - and will continue to do this annually.

A student applicant simply completes a form, and upon review and acceptance, a ten-meal swipe plan is loaded onto their student ID. Meal swipes can be redeemed at the Food Court at Reber-Thomas.

Commuter students are welcome to re-apply to the program as often as needed.

“Earlier this year I was approached by Sodexo about the Swipe Out Hunger program and the potential help for our commuting population,” said Ted Whitney, Executive Director of Off Campus Student Life. “This conversation moved quickly to a larger project with Sodexo and several other departments across campus. Soon, we were having regular meetings about this program, and we were talking about how we could implement this and how we would manage it.”

Whitney said he was very impressed with the Sodexo staff and leadership on how they responded to questions and their desire to help students.

“Working with all of our staff and peers in higher education to help our commuting students succeed and persist to graduation is our calling. It is a privilege to work alongside a partner like Sodexo on these projects,” he said.

Background on Student Food Insecurity

As reported in Forbes, a fall 2019 survey of nearly 167,000 students nationwide found that 39% of students at two-or four-year schools had experienced food insecurity in the last 30 days. The annual survey was conducted by Temple University’s Hope Center for College, Community and Justice, which studies basic needs insecurity for college students.

The pandemic has intensified the issue.

In fall 2020, the Hope Center found that 34% of college students experienced food insecurity 30 days prior. Students who had Covid-19 were 1.7 times more likely to experience food insecurity than those who hadn’t been infected with the virus.

A fall 2020 survey of 1,000 undergraduates found that 52% of students sometimes used off-campus food banks, while 30% used them monthly or more frequently. Thirty-five percent of students said their hunger had impacted their ability to study at some point.

That survey, conducted jointly by learning platform Chegg, national nonprofit Swipe Out Hunger, and the Born This Way Foundation, also found that more than one-third of students knew someone who had dropped out of school due to difficulties affording food.