CBS’s report on campus food insecurity out of UC Davis served its viewers with an unexpected dose of absurdist theater. The report also stands as both an accidental call for fundamental reforms of the American secondary education system, and an ominous look forward should reform not happen.
Watch as correspondent Elise Preston chronicles the absolute explosion of campus food pantries, and gets a mild earful about inflation:
LESLIE KEMP: A dollar today buys a third of the commodities that it bought when I was in school.
PRESTON: There are now close to 800 food pantries on college campuses. A decade ago, there were just 80. UC Davis was one of the first to open up its pantry, buried in the basement. Now the pantry is at the heart of the campus. It's not intended for those with a meal plan or who can afford groceries, but it's open to anyone with a student ID, no questions asked.
The report opens with food lines at UC Davis, and its most prominently featured student complaining about the high price of rent, food, and basic needs. It appears that there are many such instances, given the long lines.
Then, the clip you just saw with its pithy observation on inflation, and the proliferation of these campus food pantries.
Then, after a few more interactions, the story ends.
Where does one even begin with this report?
For starters, no one mentions the fact that attending UC Davis costs in-state students $156,964 for four years (and an eye-watering $281,068 for out-of-state students). Not once does this report mention this exorbitant tuition, which helps defray such important academic expenses as the chancellor’s annual salary- a hair under $605,000. And that isn’t even the highest salary at UC Davis.
What does it say about an institution that 7 out of 10 attendees are in need of a food pantry, per its local administrator? The $157 grand can’t mix in a means-tested meal plan?
Because we know from the report that the food pantry isn’t means-tested. The students just come in and grab what they need, no questions asked. In the case of the featured student, her haul included a dozen pasture-raised eggs which probably retail for around $20 near campus. All praise the gift economy!
In sum, kids (or their parents) getting into student debt and to some degree relying on charity in order to meet their food expenses. If they’re having to do this now, what happens when these kids hit the real world? What are they actually learning while in college?
In that light, it is also worth asking: what was even the purpose of this report? What message is it trying to convey? Why are we seeing a food pantry report about coddled college students when there are homeless veterans actually and literally freezing on the streets?
The report seems to have been intended, perhaps, to predispose viewers to support further expenditures earmarked for student assistance programs. Instead, it serves to expose the institutional rot at academia- and of our media. Both are in need of fundamental reform.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on CBS Evening News on Monday, February 19th, 2024:
MAJOR GARRETT: Tonight we go in-depth on the issue of food insecurity on college campuses. Recent studies show at least one in three students is dealing with this growing problem. CBS's Elise Preston shows us how one university is serving up a solution.
ELISE PRESTON: At the University of California, Davis, students may have an appetite for knowledge but this line isn't for textbooks. It's to receive food.
ERIN CASHIN: Rent is unbelievably expensive. It's unfortunate that food and groceries and just basic needs costs are so gigantic.
PRESTON: Senior Erin Cashin showed up 90 minutes before the doors opened at the on-campus food pantry.
CASHIN: I literally structure my class schedules around being able to come to the pantry.
PRESTON: It's run by students. Many of whom are working here because they've found help here.
KATIE TOBIE: It feels good to give back and know that I’m, like, I’m needed here.
PRESTON: Can you describe what it feels like when you don't know where your next meal is coming from?
TOBIE: Just like really, like, anxious.
PRESTON: Leslie Kemp runs the university's basic center. She believes it's important to offer items like fresh produce, some of which is grown on the student farm and donated to the pantry.
LESLIE KEMP: A dollar today buys a third of the commodities that it bought when I was in school.
PRESTON: There are now close to 800 food pantries on college campuses. A decade ago, there were just 80. UC Davis was one of the first to open up its pantry, buried in the basement. Now the pantry is at the heart of the campus. It's not intended for those with a meal plan or who can afford groceries, but it's open to anyone with a student ID, no questions asked.
Do you fear that people will take advantage of the system?
KEMP: We've got ten students coming in and three didn't need it, I'm okay with that. As long as we get those seven who did need it.
PRESTON: What kind of load does that lift off you?
CASHIN: Oh, huge.
PRESTON: For Erin Cashin...
CASHIN: A dozen eggs.
PRESTON: She’s stretching her dollars but only taking what she needs. You're being aware of anyone else in the struggle with you.
CASHIN: I think that's what comes with a gift economy. Let me make sure I leave some behind for the next person.
PRESTON: No regrets, no stigma, and one very big benefit.
CASHIN: It absolutely affects my academic performance. So it definitely affects mental health. Without being able to do this.
PRESTON: That’s certainly food for thought. Elise Preston, CBS News, Davis, California.
