Falling Through the Cracks: Examining One Institution’s Response to Food Insecure Student-Parents

Although studies have addressed how universities respond to the needs of student-parents and food-insecure students independently, few studies examine students with these intersecting identities. This article explores how institutional culture affects the ways that universities respond to the needs of food-insecure student-parents. Using Schein’s analysis of culture, the article considers the ways that one institution’s culture assumes that the normative college student is both food secure and childless, creating obstacles for anyone who does not fit that norm. Although the university had programs in place to support food insecure student-parents, the data suggest that the campus continues to privilege the normative student.