FIERCe

Interviewer: "Question two, briefly, you don’t have to go into horrible or hard details, what was the first time you experienced food insecurity outside of your family life?"

 

Student: "Literally that whole first year was kinda hard. Because school is so expensive, obviously. My parents tried to help me as much as they could, but I would use that to pay for school. It was so expensive. It would have been so much easier and cheaper if I went to school in Idaho, but I wouldn't have been happier - I probably wouldn't have finished school. That whole first year was hard, I have been lucky though, because I know so many kind people that have helped me. All my friends from the first year, we all struggled so hard and so being able to be on the same level was helpful emotionally, and like nobody let the other person continue to have a hard time. 

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It was the same thing as your family, you weren't doing great but you all helped each other. 

 

For a lot of us it was the first time being on our own. That makeshift family was super helpful. If somebody didn't have food, the other person would spot them, get them something. We'd have dinner together and everybody would contribute one thing so we'd all have enough. That was really nice. In the summer it was really hard because it was just me by myself when everyone went back home."

 

Interviewer: "Was it surprising to you that it was so common? That so many people were also dealing with it?" 

 

Student: "It wasn't really surprising; even back home everybody else had their shit going on, I don't come from a very rich part of Idaho. Everybody works on a farm and is on the same page, kind of. There were some rich families, but a lot of families were not rich, they were in the same position as my family was. It wasn't surprising. 

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So there wasn't really any one specific time, it was transitioning from with your family to not being with your family. It stayed the same and was just a prolonged year of it."