What SA students are eating and why its alarming

UNIVERSITY students have limited spending money and their schedules are packed. Many are adapting to new lifestyles on campus. Eating a healthy diet is crucial: a poor diet leads to reduced concentration, lower grades and increased stress.

- TINASHE P KANOSVAMHIRA

Campus cafés, especially at universities that are some distance from supermarkets, often sell mainly fast food such as white bread sandwiches, hot chips and doughnuts. It’s easy to eat on the go, but places nutritious choices out of reach.

I’m an urban geographer who researches the relationship between food, health and place. My work examines how urban agriculture, informal food systems and everyday urban infrastructures shape well-being, sustainability and spatial justice.

African research has already found that through pricing, menu design and information provision, campus cafés play a decisive role in shaping dietary behaviours among young adults.

I wanted to find out how students at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa choose what to eat when they’re on campus, what they see as healthy food and what stands in the way of them buying nutritious meals.

The university is one that was underfunded during apartheid. Until 1994 it primarily taught students who were black and people of colour.

Today, it serves about 23 000 students, many of whom are drawn from low-income backgrounds, and has few supermarkets within walking distance. The campus cafés are a key food supply area for students.

My research found that at the University of the Western Cape, only 32% of the food offered at the student café was healthy. It also cost more than the fast food.

The students I surveyed knew healthy food was important. But only a small minority consistently chose nutritious meals.

Nearly 40% of the group reported that the healthy options were too expensive.