Bear Bytes: Healthy Eating and Student Support Program

The goal of Bear Bytes is to provide food and other health and wellness resources and information direct and indirect) to students to encourage and support proper nutrition and wellness that are essential to academic success. Data gathered from a recent campus survey shows this is a need for a lot of students. We want to help students be their best inside and outside of the classroom!

The Smart Meals program offers individualized assistance to students at the New York campuses. If you think you might benefit from this, contact the Office of the Dean of Students and we can explore the options available to you! The Grizzly Cupboard is open to all enrolled undergraduate and graduate students at the New York campuses.

Since we want to help every student as much as possible with their situation, the program isn't anonymous. The more you tell us, the more we can help you. All information will remain confidential to the staff responsible for providing assistance.

The Grizzly Cupboard will provide recommendations for how much food can be obtained during a visit based upon household size. We will aim to provide nine meals per person (three meals for three days) in each home during each visit. Students are able to visit the Grizzly Cupboard once per week. For a better understanding of this offering, please see the "How to Pack a Balanced Pantry Bag" infographic provided by Food Bank for New York City.

Beyond the transition that students face when beginning college, there can be other significant periods of stress throughout your college career. . Making new friends, adjusting to a demanding workload, and navigating college during the era of COVID-19 can certainly increase feelings of anxiety. While it is normal to experience stress from time to time, chronic stress or stress that is unmanaged can have a negative affect on our physical and mental well-being. If you experience hopelessness, trouble concentrating, difficulty sleeping, fast heartbeat, excessive worry, withdrawal from friends, a decline in academic achievement, etc. for an extended period of time, please contact New York Tech’s Counseling and Wellness Center for assistance and resources to support and encourage you during this time.

According to the National College and University Basic Needs Insecurity Report (2019), 45 percent of college students surveyed at 123 institutions reported experiencing food insecurity in the past 30 days. The study also found a statistically significant relationship with self-reported poor physical health, symptoms of depression, and higher perceived stress.. Food insecurity was also found to have an impact on academic performance as students who experience food insecurity report lower completion and credit attainment rates.

To assess the needs of our students and guide our response, New York Tech conducted a Food Insecurity Survey in fall 2019. Of those students at our New York campuses who responded, over half answered "yes" to having eaten less food than they thought they should have due not having enough money over the course of a month. In a follow-up question to this group, more than a quarter of students stated that they had eaten less than they thought they should have for more than 10 days in the month prior to taking the survey. Given these findings, New York Tech seeks to support students through the Smart Meals Program and provide a food pantry, the Grizzly Cupboard, on each of our New York campuses.