Campus Food Pantry Use Is Linked to Better Health Among Public University Students

Objective: To examine retrospectively whether access to a campus food pantry (CFP) is related to improvements in sleep, mental health, and physical health among college students in a public university system. Design: Retrospective, cross-sectional study of student CFP users who completed an online survey in the summer of 2019. Setting: Ten-campus University of California system. Participants: A total of 1,855 students completed the survey. Main variables measured: Students reported the number of CFP visits in a usual week or month. Students retrospectively rated their perceived health, depressive symptoms, and sleep sufficiency before and after having food pantry access. The difference between pre- and post-food pantry access responses was calculated. Analysis: Path analysis was used to examine direct and indirect paths of the relationship between CFP visits with self-reported changes in depressive symptoms and perceived health through positive changes in self-reported sleep sufficiency, controlling for sociodemographic factors. Results: More monthly CFP visits were directly related to decreased depressive symptoms and improved perceived health (β_depressive = 0.10, P < 0.001; β_health = 0.12, P < 0.001). In addition, more CFP visits were related to improved sleep sufficiency (β = 0.09, P = 0.001), which in turn was related to a decrease in depressive symptoms (β = 0.24, P = 0.001; indirect effect: 0.02, P < 0.01) and improved perceived health (β = 0.23, P < 0.001; indirect effect: 0.02, P < 0.01). Conclusions and Implications: Findings suggest that college campus emergency food access is associated with self-reported improvements in student health outcomes associated with food security. Until more long-term solutions that improve college student nutrition are developed, food pantries may be filling a gap.