AUSTRALIA: Universities offer food aid to poor students

AUSTRALIA: Universities offer food aid to poor students
31 August 2008
Issue: 0042


The rising cost of living is hitting some Australian university students so hard that the universities have now resorted to handing out emergency food aid, reports ABC News. Student organisations say many students across the country are going hungry, and the Australian Catholic University in Sydney has set up a system where students can take food handouts anonymously.

It says an increasing number of students are turning up to classes hungry, forced to skip meals because of the growing costs of living. So the university has had to set up a cupboard stocked with essential food items. Cath Leary, who runs the programme, says dozens of students access it on a daily basis.

"Some people are doing it really tough, some people are eating one meal a day," she said, adding that the university is hearing from counsellors in particular of students reporting that they are probably not eating as much as they should be. She thinks many more students than are using the cupboard, are going hungry.
Full report on the ABC News site