CAMPUS HUNGER: Students tell of going up to 7 days without food

University students recount skipping meals, relying on friends and university aid to manage the financial burden of student living.

Research by the University of the Western Cape indicates that hunger among students across South African universities ranges from 30% to 65% - this means that up to one in three or more than half of students at times go hungry.

This was highlighted in the Union Against Hunger (UAH)’s recent submission to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC)’s inquiry into South Africa’s food systems in March.

And while there is great focus on developing a skilled workforce, the journey to the qualification is often overlooked, said UAH member and University of Pretoria (UP) master’s student in Development Studies Nthuseng Mokoena.

“People struggle; you can’t go to class if you’re hungry. You can’t focus in class if you’re hungry. It becomes a very big problem for you to just function daily,” Mokoena said in an interview with Daily Maverick.

Student hunger undermines Section 27 of the Constitution, because although everyone has the right to food, this right is “forever threatened”, said Oscar Sithole, who is also a UAH member and PhD candidate in development studies at UP and an affiliate of the DSTI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security.

Sithole added that hunger is hidden in institutions of higher learning. Students hesitate to share the status of their hunger or food insecurity, because of the misconception that students are part of an elite group in society, he said.

Daily Maverick spoke to two university students who were willing to share their experiences of hunger.

A student at Stellenbosch University (SU), who asked to remain anonymous, said he had struggled to afford food from the beginning of April until the middle of June of this year. During this period, he had not received his R1,716 monthly allowance from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

The student added that he did not approach his family for help because of their financial difficulties.

“Life is hard for them back home. I know their struggles – no one is working at the moment. So that’s why I did not want to put pressure on them. They’d end up making loans which they will struggle to pay back,” the student said.

Instead, he asked friends for food before approaching the university for assistance, he said. The university then provided him with groceries for a few weeks before the matter was resolved on 18 June.

While the SU student is no longer struggling, another NSFAS recipient from the University of the Western Cape (UWC) described her difficulties as an “ongoing cycle”.

The UWC student (who also asked to remain anonymous) said she is confronted with financial difficulty almost every two weeks. Her monthly expenses include sanitary pads and toiletries. She added that she occasionally has unexpected academic expenses as well, such as printing costs, books and stationery. She often also had medical expenses, since she regularly visited the doctor and had blood tests.