LA Strong: Disaster Response Fund - Updates

A note from Jaime Hansen, Executive Director, Swipe Out Hunger:

The January 2025 Los Angeles fires were devastating to many, including a group not often considered: students enrolled in higher education. As the impact of the fires grew, the team at Swipe Out Hunger looked for ways to support those impacted. Serendipitously, the Foundation for the Los Angeles Community Colleges (Foundation) reached out to our nonprofit for assistance in managing inquiries to the LA Strong: Disaster Response Fund. We were delighted to jump in to help students stay enrolled during this disaster.

About Swipe Out Hunger

Swipe Out Hunger is a nonprofit organization founded by students to support students, with a vision to end college hunger. Starting on the UCLA campus in 2010, we have evolved from our flagship program—the Meal Swipe Drive, where students can donate unused meals to other students on campus—to now supporting food pantries and basic needs centers across North America.

With almost 900 campus partners in our network, we are seeing changing levels of access to food security today and in the near future. Student access to public benefits has always been challenging, but with new federal legislation and impending funding cuts, those public benefits are becoming harder to obtain. We are also seeing fluctuating enrollment rates due to changes in the administration of FAFSA and Pell Grants. As if academia and these unstable systems weren’t stressful enough, the fires displaced thousands of students from their homes and stretched income intended for their basic needs

Our Partnership Response

In February, the Foundation and Swipe Out Hunger formed a partnership to support the more than 3,000 students in the Los Angeles Community College District who were believed to be directly impacted by these disasters. Swipe Out Hunger's expertise in the student experience and basic essentials security allowed us to quickly support the review and needs assessment of hundreds of applications. With the guiding rubric and process already in place from the Foundation, several Swipe team members read through applications and suggested emergency grant amounts.

Key Takeaways

Through the narrative of the applications, our team was reminded of the fragility of being a student:

• Hidden Housing Insecurity: Although many students initially reported they did not experience housing insecurity in the survey questions, their narrative explanations revealed they were couch-surfing at the homes of friends or extended family or living in their cars. This highlighted how terminology used to describe living situations can impact how and if people access benefits, opening our eyes to ways we can change our messaging to ensure students recognize themselves and therefore raise their hand for support.

• Food and Housing Security are Inseparable: Imagine how much money it takes to dine out for every meal or to not have a consistent place to safely store and prepare food. As people were displaced, they were unable to maintain their dietary and cultural food needs. Nutrition needs, cultural customs, religious observations, and overall health were sacrificed for immediate hunger relief. Many restaurants were closed, transportation to grocery stores was difficult, and many students reported feeding their families with limited food found at local convenience stores.

Beyond Financial Aid

We know that traditional models of financial aid often fail to meet the needs of many low-income students. This is especially true for students attending community colleges in California.

According to a report by The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS), even after accessing state and federal aid, the net costs at community colleges in California can exceed $14,000 for students from households earning less than $30,000 per year, or nearly half of the family’s income. For years, TICAS has highlighted that while tuition and fees remain low at community colleges, the non-tuition costs of housing, transportation, and supplies, combined with the reduced financial aid opportunities available to community college students, often results in a net price that is higher for community college students as compared to the Cal State or UC system.

As they did during the pandemic, the Foundation recognized that students impacted by the fires needed resources beyond financial aid to address the massive costs and disruptions. The Foundation quickly navigated these structures and policies to ensure that the LA Strong: Disaster Response Fund would address such needs. 

Keeping students enrolled ensures completion of their academic goals—something 42 million Americans who had to exit school before completing a degree or certification deeply understand. These fires remind us that it is often unmet basic needs, and not academic considerations, that cause a student to pause or end their postsecondary journeys. 

With the continuation of this partnership, Swipe Out Hunger is learning from the Foundation's incredibly responsive program and exploring where we might build more partnerships, collaborations, or direct student grant-making across the country. We are excited to continue to support the Foundation’s second phase of disaster response grants this spring, to include sustained support for students impacted by the fires in ways that have jeopardized both their basic needs and their college and career aspirations!

Supporting this work strengthens our entire community. Stiles, Hout, and Brady (2012) find that in California, every dollar spent on higher education in the state returns $4.50 back to state coffers. And that's just the return on investment! It doesn't begin to describe the fulfillment and growth that students experience by continuing their education.

Swipe Out Hunger extends special thanks to the Foundation and its supporters for their significant impact on LA college students, their equitable grant-making policies, and for including us as partners. This collaboration with the Foundation, and others, creates a better quality of life for us all.