Now, this article might be based merely on a poll, but it is still reporting on a hidden, but very serious, problem. Tuition keeps getting expensive & inaccessible every academic semester. Students' wages & their parents' incomes are not increasing accordingly. But the hype of getting an education is not only constantly there but becoming an ever-ringing alarm bell.
So, every parent & family wants their children to attend a good post-secondary institution. Good post-secondary institution also charge exorbitant tuition fees, which in part, is due to governments at all levels cutting education funding. That in turn increases tuition fees.
So, unless the parents have a garden of magic trees with leaves of hard cold cash, children will suffer in getting their education. This is especially true for families which don't have enough income & wealth in the first place. If parents don't / can't contribute to their children's education, then their kids' education is affected even worse. As I blogged last year, that some universities are building luxury dorms to cater to children of affluent families, & at the same time, charging exorbitant tuition fees to poverty-stricken students.
Even this food bank mentioned in this article is volunteer-run. Universities & governments still won't help students, who are in dire need to choose between basic food or studies, with enough support to help them focus on their studies than to worry about where their next meal is going to come from, if at all.
This is the terrible condition of poverty-stricken students in first-world countries; from US to Canada to UK. These countries are considered as welfare nations. These countries will charge high taxes but those taxes are paying government ministers' salaries than providing a meal to a hungry student. Then, that hungry student will most likely get even more burdened with debts to fill his stomach & study.
How can we expect a nation to be productive when it can't even provide its poor students with enough food to help them keep their focus on their studies? How can we expect a nation to produce brilliant leaders of tomorrow when a majority of its poor can't even get proper food to keep their brains properly functioning? How can we expect a nation to expect its youth to become the engine of growth & productivity when that young population received no help, whatsoever, when it needed it the most & now, after graduating, it is saddled with thousands upon thousands in student debt?
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A new campus food bank at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax is part of a troubling trend, says the Canadian Federation of Students.
Similar services have sprung up on campuses across Canada as tuition fees & living costs have risen along with student debt, national chairperson Bilan Arte said Tuesday.
“Student unions keep having to prioritize this issue because their members keep saying that they’re making these hard choices between tuition and their next meal. This is incredibly alarming for our organization.
“I think it really underscores for us the importance of talking about the inaccessibility of post-secondary education in Canada today.”
The federation, representing more than 500,000 members from 80 students’ unions, is calling on the federal & provincial governments to make higher learning more affordable.
Arte ... said the true extent of student poverty is largely unrecognized & under-reported.
“How many food banks opening on campus is it going to take before governments sort of realize that maybe there’s a problem?”
Financial aid officer Allen Wolfe of Saint Mary’s University said he helped set up the campus service after referring students to local food banks on a weekly basis. The plight of an international student who was going without meals convinced him to act.
“It wasn’t until a long interview with him that I realized he wasn’t eating,” Wolfe said in a telephone interview. “He was starving, basically, but still maintaining perfect grades.
“That’s really what stuck with me this year and what pushed me forward to make this happen.”
Wolfe stressed that, like many campus food banks, the Saint Mary’s service relies on volunteers & is not funded by the university.
“There’s no budget line for this. It’s going to be regularly maintained by food drives.”
Maximum student loan limits have not risen in the last 2 years as food, housing & other prices have gone up, he added.
Wolfe said he also sees many young people who never learned how to properly budget for life on their own.
While campus-specific statistics are not available, Arte referred to a national study released last fall by Food Banks Canada. It found that community food banks across the country support about 841,000 people a month, up 25% since the economic slide of 2008.
“We know that campuses are microcosms of the larger society,” Arte said. “We have generally heard and have seen our members report an increase in the usage of their food banks on campus.”
A new poll just released by CIBC (TSX:CM) found that 51% of college & university students turned to their parents last year for help after running out of cash.
The online survey conducted Aug. 13-17 among 1,001 Canadian parents who are Angus Reid Forum panellists suggested 48% of students from families with incomes higher than $125,000 asked for more money, compared to 52% from families earning less than $75,000.
So, every parent & family wants their children to attend a good post-secondary institution. Good post-secondary institution also charge exorbitant tuition fees, which in part, is due to governments at all levels cutting education funding. That in turn increases tuition fees.
So, unless the parents have a garden of magic trees with leaves of hard cold cash, children will suffer in getting their education. This is especially true for families which don't have enough income & wealth in the first place. If parents don't / can't contribute to their children's education, then their kids' education is affected even worse. As I blogged last year, that some universities are building luxury dorms to cater to children of affluent families, & at the same time, charging exorbitant tuition fees to poverty-stricken students.
Even this food bank mentioned in this article is volunteer-run. Universities & governments still won't help students, who are in dire need to choose between basic food or studies, with enough support to help them focus on their studies than to worry about where their next meal is going to come from, if at all.
This is the terrible condition of poverty-stricken students in first-world countries; from US to Canada to UK. These countries are considered as welfare nations. These countries will charge high taxes but those taxes are paying government ministers' salaries than providing a meal to a hungry student. Then, that hungry student will most likely get even more burdened with debts to fill his stomach & study.
How can we expect a nation to be productive when it can't even provide its poor students with enough food to help them keep their focus on their studies? How can we expect a nation to produce brilliant leaders of tomorrow when a majority of its poor can't even get proper food to keep their brains properly functioning? How can we expect a nation to expect its youth to become the engine of growth & productivity when that young population received no help, whatsoever, when it needed it the most & now, after graduating, it is saddled with thousands upon thousands in student debt?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A new campus food bank at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax is part of a troubling trend, says the Canadian Federation of Students.
Similar services have sprung up on campuses across Canada as tuition fees & living costs have risen along with student debt, national chairperson Bilan Arte said Tuesday.
“Student unions keep having to prioritize this issue because their members keep saying that they’re making these hard choices between tuition and their next meal. This is incredibly alarming for our organization.
“I think it really underscores for us the importance of talking about the inaccessibility of post-secondary education in Canada today.”
The federation, representing more than 500,000 members from 80 students’ unions, is calling on the federal & provincial governments to make higher learning more affordable.
Arte ... said the true extent of student poverty is largely unrecognized & under-reported.
“How many food banks opening on campus is it going to take before governments sort of realize that maybe there’s a problem?”
Financial aid officer Allen Wolfe of Saint Mary’s University said he helped set up the campus service after referring students to local food banks on a weekly basis. The plight of an international student who was going without meals convinced him to act.
“It wasn’t until a long interview with him that I realized he wasn’t eating,” Wolfe said in a telephone interview. “He was starving, basically, but still maintaining perfect grades.
“That’s really what stuck with me this year and what pushed me forward to make this happen.”
Wolfe stressed that, like many campus food banks, the Saint Mary’s service relies on volunteers & is not funded by the university.
“There’s no budget line for this. It’s going to be regularly maintained by food drives.”
Maximum student loan limits have not risen in the last 2 years as food, housing & other prices have gone up, he added.
Wolfe said he also sees many young people who never learned how to properly budget for life on their own.
While campus-specific statistics are not available, Arte referred to a national study released last fall by Food Banks Canada. It found that community food banks across the country support about 841,000 people a month, up 25% since the economic slide of 2008.
“We know that campuses are microcosms of the larger society,” Arte said. “We have generally heard and have seen our members report an increase in the usage of their food banks on campus.”
A new poll just released by CIBC (TSX:CM) found that 51% of college & university students turned to their parents last year for help after running out of cash.
The online survey conducted Aug. 13-17 among 1,001 Canadian parents who are Angus Reid Forum panellists suggested 48% of students from families with incomes higher than $125,000 asked for more money, compared to 52% from families earning less than $75,000.
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