美国大学生穷的都吃不起饭了
关于大学生的日常饮食习惯我们有很多的固有偏见：他们爱吃零食而且饮食不规律;他们每晚开 party，而且只吃披萨喝劣质啤酒。但是一份来自 Temple 大学和 Wisconsin 希望实验室的调查描绘了一个更加让人不安的现实。据这份 4 月份刊出的报告显示，超过三分之一的美国学生饮食得不到保障，这就是说他们通常吃不到有营养的食物。
The researchers surveyed 43,000 students at schools across the country, asking them whether or not they identified with statements such as “I couldn’t afford to eat balanced meals” and “I worried about whether my food would run out before I got the money to buy more.” Based on the responses, the researchers determined that 36 percent of survey takers who attended four-year colleges were food insecure. At community colleges that figure was 42 percent.
调查人员调查了全国 43，000 名大学生，调查问题包括你认同下面哪一种描述：“我吃不起营养均衡的食物。”和“我担心在我拿到钱之前食物会被吃光。”基于他们的回答可以确定36% 的4年制大学受访者都处于食物达不到保障的状态，而在社区大学，这个数字是 42%。
More troublingly, the report suggests that students from low-income backgrounds, as well as those whose parents aren’t U.S. citizens, may be less likely to regularly eat healthy meals. Half of students who received Pell grants, a form of need-based financial aid, were deemed food insecure based on the survey results.
更糟糕的是，报告显示来自低收入家庭的学生和父母不是美国公民的学生情况更艰难。而在接受佩尔助学金的学生中，有一半人都得不到饮食保障。
But despite overwhelming evidence that low-income college students often have trouble accessing nutritious food, some critics are claiming these results are negated by, uh, the freshman 15.
尽管低收入大学生确实很难吃的起有营养的食物，但还有一些评论家表示这个调查结果不可靠，理由呢.....是 freshman 15(调侃大学新生一入学就胖 15 磅的梗)
On Wednesday, USA Today opinion columnist James Bovard published an op-ed essentially refuting the premise of the survey — and arguing that college kids can’t possibly be undernourished, because they are statistically proven to be overweight. “Rather than being perpetually famished, 70 percent of college students gain weight during their undergrad years,” he wrote. By way of an explanation, Bovard pointed out that “few students are svelte when they arrive on campus,” citing an Obesity Research study suggesting that high school students are “30 times more likely to be overweight than underweight.”
周三，USA Today 的专栏作家 James Bovard 写了一篇社论专门说这份调查有问题，还表示现在的大学生不可能营养不良，因为有数据显示他们都超重了。“不仅仅是不可能挨饿，70% 的大学生在本科期间都长胖了，”他写到。作为解释，他指出“有的学生刚上大学的时候可瘦了，”他还引用一份肥胖研究会的调查，指出中学生“超重的可能性是体重过轻的 30 倍。”
No one is disputing that some students gain weight in college, or that a growing number of Americans are obese — but there’s no reason to assume that people who are overweight aren’t also severely malnourished. Though 14 percent of the students the Temple/HOPE study surveyed did report losing weight because they couldn’t afford to eat, a growing body of research, compiled here by the Food Research & Action Center, suggests a link between poverty, food insecurity, and obesity. One 2012 study found that people who skip meals to stretch their food budgets often gain weight because of their unbalanced diets. Another found that low-income people are disproportionately exposed to fast food, sugary drinks, and other food products that contribute to obesity.
大学生越来越胖或者说美国人越来越胖这一点无可争议——但是还有一种可能：营养不良和超重同时存在。尽管有 14% 的受访者因为吃不起东西变瘦了，由 Food Research & Action Center 编纂的一份研究表明，贫穷，营养不良和超重之间存在联系。一份 2012 年的研究发现，那些为了省钱少吃一顿饭的人因为饮食不均衡更容易变胖。另一份调查显示低收入人群更爱快餐糖水等易胖的食物。
Angela Odoms-Young, an assistant professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago, summed up the problem in a blog post for Feeding America. “To maintain adequate energy intake, many families with limited resources select lower-quality diets, including high-calorie, energy-dense foods,” she wrote. Basically, when you’re working long hours for little pay — or struggling to get by as a college student — it’s easier and cheaper to eat pre-prepared food, or foods that are high in calories but low in necessary nutrients.
伊利诺伊州立大学的营养学助教 Angela Odoms-Young 在 Feeding America 里发表了一篇文章总结这个问题。“为了保证每日能量的获取，许多收入有限的家庭都选择了高卡路里高热量的食物，”她写到。根本上讲，如果你从事长时间的廉价劳动——或是一名大学生——你就更可能吃高卡路里低营养的廉价快餐。
But Bovard, who has previously dismissed the concept of food insecurity, seemed unimpressed with the survey’s findings that students who experience it “try to make ends meet in a variety of ways.” Instead, he suggested that students who can’t afford healthy food quit whining and get a job — even though about 70 percent of college students do work while attending school, according to a 2015 Georgetown University study. “Students spend far less time studying than their predecessors,” he quipped. “But expecting students to use free time to get a job to feed themselves is beyond the pale.”
不过前面那位否定存在营养不良的专家 Bovard 对“学生们为了省钱想尽办法”的事实无动于衷。相反，他建议学生们不应该抱怨应该去打工挣钱。——即便 70% 的大学生都在一边工作一边读书。“现在的学生学习都没咱们那会儿用功了，”他讽刺到，“但你让他们去打工挣钱养活自己，他们还不愿意。”
As if that weren’t condescending enough, Bovard also claimed that students who receive financial aid have no reason to be food insecure, since they’re apparently rolling in money. “This study offers no clues on what happened to that largesse — or to the other $100 billion in federal assistance provided to college students in 2016,” he wrote.
这还不够，Bovard 还说，接受拿助学金的学生不可能营养不良，他们手上有的是钱。“这个调查没有涉及到学生助学金的使用情况，”他写到。
In addition to being seemingly unaware of that the average college student has a job, it would seem Bovard might benefit from going to google.com and typing in “average college tuition cost,” which the College Board notes is $9,970, for in-state students attending public four-year universities during the 2017-18 school year. This price does not include the cost of books, transportation, housing, or food. Meanwhile, the maximum Pell grant awarded during that school year was $5,920, though most students received less.
除开无视大部分学生都打工这个事实，Bovard 还专门去谷歌查了一下“大学生平均学费”，据 College Board 提供的资料，2017-2018 学年，公立四年制大学针对本州学生的学费是 9970 美金。但是这个价格是不包含课本费和交通住房饮食的。同时，佩尔助学金 最多奖 5920 美金，大部分学生还拿不到这么多。
Although some universities have meal plans, not all students can afford them. And campus dining halls aren’t open year-round; 40 percent of students withmeal plans at two-year colleges were deemed food insecure, the Temple/HOPE study found, as were 26 percent of meal plan-having students at four-year colleges.
尽管大部分学校都有学生餐，但大部分学生是吃不起的。而且食堂也不是全年都开;在两年制大学吃学生餐的学生，有 40% 都营养不良，这个数字在四年制大学中是 26%。
Bovard’s solution? That colleges should “offer low-cost meal plans in lieu of the five-star buffets they already serve,” in order to curb the nationwide food insecurity crisis he claimed doesn’t exist. Offering lower-cost (or free) meal plans to low-income students is a great idea, but it does nothing to stave off hunger during spring, summer, and winter breaks, when the dining halls are closed. In other words, it doesn’t solve the larger problem: that students don’t have access to affordable, high-quality food year-round.
Bovard 有什么解决办法呢?他说，大学应该“提供低价学生餐代替他们之前提供的五星级自助餐，”以解决在他看来根本不存在的营养不良问题。提供廉价(或免费)学生餐是个好主意，但是根本解决不了春假，暑假，寒假期间的伙食问题，这些时间段食堂铁定不开门。换句话说，这没法解决最严重的问题:学生没办法一年四季都吃上廉价高质量的饭菜。
Universities are accepting more low-income and first generation students than ever, even as tuitions climb steadily. If students are to secure access to healthy, affordable food year-round, then schools — and not the people who attend them — are going to have to find a way to make that possible, whether it be by increasing financial aid, establishing campus food pantries, or simply offering students guidance on which federal assistance programs they may be eligible for. The bootstraps-style contrarianism exhibited by Bovard and others does nothing more than dismiss the challenges low-income students’ face under the guise of promoting personal responsibility.
现在的大学接受的低收入群体和第一代移民越来越多，学费也在不断增长。如果学生能吃得上健康廉价的饭菜，学校能够找到可行的办法，问题才能改善。像 Bovard 等人的打着自己为自己负责无视问题存在的言论对解决问题毫无帮助。
