Letters to the editor do not reflect the opinion of Golden Gate Xpress or the SF State Journalism Department. Letters to the editor are published as is, unless otherwise noted.

To the Xpress Editor:

Thank you for your article (August 24, 2016) focusing on student homelessness and food insecurity. With inequalities in wealth rising and the middle class being increasingly financially squeezed, and given that San Francisco has one of the highest costs of living in the country, more and more of our students are becoming imperiled in relation to the basic human rights of food and shelter.

It was particularly gratifying to learn from your article that the campus bookstore has donated $9,000 for a food pantry.

The California Faculty Association E-Board here at San Francisco State voted last year to donate $2000 for a food pantry for our students, and we raised the idea of creating such a pantry with President Wong at that time.

The U.C. system recently surveyed its students and discovered that one in five experiences food insecurity. In response, U.C. President Janet Napolitano immediately ordered the expenditure of more than $3 million to make more food available to students. Many of their campuses already have food pantries. In fact, more than 300 colleges across the country have established such pantries.

Our students surely have equal or even greater needs than U.C. students. And our students cannot do their best work while struggling with food insecurity and lack of housing.

We hope that SF State will prioritize these urgent student needs and get a food pantry up and running on campus immediately, especially in light of the Xpress report that “SF State’s support offerings for housing and food insecure students fell below average” in relation to the other CSU campuses.

Ann Robertson

Lecturer, Department of Philosophy

California Faculty Association Representative for the College of Liberal and Creative Arts