Students all over the country are back on campus, which means anxiety about new roommates and classes. But new research tells us that a lot of those students also worry about getting enough to eat. 

Emaline Friedman is one such student. She shops at the Pavilions grocery store at Melrose and Vine in Los Angeles, because it’s located close to where she lives, and offers a lot of fresh produce and organic food. She’s in Los Angeles taking care of an elderly relative while she writes her psychology dissertation at the University of West Georgia. She relies on California’s food assistance program, called CalFresh.

She’s vegetarian, and when she shops she scans the store for meat-free options like hummus and crackers, which CalFresh helps her afford. But Friedman isn’t the only higher education student who needs help getting enough to eat.

“That would mean that I would not be able to take care of my my elderly grandma who’s in a wheelchair right now,” Friedman said, “I help out and take care of her two days a week.”

Friedman was ashamed to accept food assistance at first. But, she said, she got over her pride.

“I saw how that pride sort of morphed into a refusal to accept help.” The food assistance program is helping Friedman to finish her Ph.D., advance her career, and, she hopes, eventually stop using it.