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I enjoy Last Chance U, but one thing that is sticking out much more to me this season is Dior's story and struggle with food insecurity. This summer I've started to do some work on FI for college students, but in thinking more specifically about SAs it's insane how some SAs are
food insecure. That lead me to this Hope report from earlier this year. 24% of D1, 26% of D2 and 21% of D3 SA in this report were food insecure and this is not talked about in media at all. That's crazy. All of the stories glorifying the great amenities
https://hope4college.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/2019_StudentAthletes_Report.pdf
https://hope4college.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/2019_StudentAthletes_Report.pdf
that SAs have and how great of a life SA must live, but no one is looking at the deeper darker side of things. Yes, some SAs have great resources, but many do not. Even the SAs that have the resources, they may not know about how to access them or feel comfortable using them.
What about those SAs that are using their resources to not be food insecure and then had it all shut down with COVID and now don't have anything? Here's an example from Ole Miss. This is awful. More work is needed and people need to https://www.si.com/college/2020/04/21/ncaa-athletes-food-nutrition-study-coronavirus
be talking about food insecurity for student-athletes. Moving beyond talking, there needs to be creativity in thinking through how to address it. Critically examining how policies affect SAs ability to get food, removing the stigma around being food insecure, helping SA find and
navigate benefits they may be eligible for, like SNAP or other assistance programs etc, providing coaches with resources for managing food insecurity as it comes up. All of that needs to be brought to the table to help address this issue.
I'll never forget being an assistant coach at a college in 2015 and having to help one of my wrestlers figure out where he was going to sleep/eat dead in the middle of the season. It was messed up. It felt my hands were tied and there wasn't anything that we could do.
We want SA to win championships, graduate college and go on to do great things but they can't do it all if they're hungry. We have to do a better job bringing this issue to the forefront, understand it and then collaboratively work to end it.
