Building better food solutions: International students’ perspectives and experiences
Building better food solutions: International students’ perspectives and experiences
Project Update
Our report on international students’ experiences of food insecurity is now available.
More than 60 international students responded to our survey and we interviewed 22 in-depth about their experiences accessing nutritious and culturally appropriate foods. Key findings from the research include:
- Experiences of international students in Melbourne were varied, revolving around the positive and negative aspects related to making connections with other international students or expat communities in Melbourne, social isolation and the impacts of COVID lockdowns.
- Participants relied on public transport and walking to get around and find food. However, the cost associated with public transport was prohibitive to some and walking to get groceries meant that only small amounts could be purchased at any one time.
- Culturally familiar foods tended to be associated with meaning and connection with their culture and community. Nonetheless, barriers to accessing such foods were numerous, including lack of availability, inconvenience accessing desired food and expense.
- Food insecurity experiences varied in severity among participants but were often related to limited time to source and cook food due to study and work commitments, having to opt for less nutritious or culturally appropriate foods, and struggling with limited knowledge of the city during early months of living in Melbourne.
- Coping mechanisms described by those who had experienced food insecurity most commonly related to managing their finances, as well as accessing food relief, opting for cheaper less nutritious food alternatives, or sourcing support from friends and family.
- Participants’ suggestions for food insecurity solutions included improved support for international students, such as food relief, financial support or assistance in the form of employment help, vouchers or scholarships.
A study of international Melbourne-based students about their experiences of accessing nutritious and culturally appropriate foods during the pandemic, and what impact this may have on their broader lives.
Before COVID-19, up to 48% of Australian university students did not know where their next meal was coming from. The pandemic has highlighted this struggle to access nutritious and culturally appropriate food, particularly among international students. Such struggle can have significant negative impacts on physical and mental health, wellbeing, and educational attainment.
Even though international students represent almost 40% of all university students in Victoria, not enough is understood about their experiences accessing appropriate foods, or how they can be better supported.
A team of Monash researchers from CYPEP (Cathy Waite, Beatriz Gallo Cordoba, Lucas Walsh, Agrata Mukherjee) and from the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food (Sue Kleve, Tammie Choi) have come together to explore international students’ experiences of eating and accessing food in Melbourne during the pandemic.
The first stage of the research will be to survey Melbourne-based international students. The survey will ask about living and working arrangements, access to food that participants want to eat, availability of culturally appropriate food, and sources of help and support. The second stage will involve interviewing selected survey participants to gain a deeper understanding of their experiences. Surveys and interviews will be conducted over March, April and May, 2022.
The project will contribute to the development of socially and culturally appropriate solutions to address food insecurity among international university students living in Melbourne by:
- examining the role that socio-cultural and environmental factors play in students’ ability to access sufficient, safe, nutritious and culturally appropriate food;
- identifying similarities and differences between episodic and ongoing experiences of food insecurity;
- identifying the strategies that students adopt to cope with food insecurity and the effect on their food insecurity experience; and
- identifying students’ perspectives on the strategies that universities could adopt to address food insecurity.
The results will help universities, food-aid agencies and policymakers in health and education to understand the specific experiences of international students in Melbourne and put support measures in place to better meet students’ needs, with flow-on benefits to international students themselves.
Although the current project is focused on Melbourne-based students, findings will be applicable to other cities, and the researchers hope to broaden the scope of this research to a nationwide study in the future.
