Students are choosing between food and their future

Across Australia, university students are experiencing food insecurity at rates far higher than many realise. As the cost-of-living crisis intensifies, food is often the first expense cut from the budget to make room for rising rent and fuel.

Lily, a first-in-family student from Bendigo campus, knows this pressure all too well. "I’ve had to choose between getting groceries or fuel for the week," she says. "On particularly bad weeks, I’ve had a pack of two-minute noodles and chips to last me five days."

But this problem is not unique to Lily. Another student, Charlotte, shared similar anxieties, “I’m always checking my bank account before grocery shopping and planning meals around what’s affordable.”

Balancing full-time study with part-time work – the strain is more than just physical. It is an invisible challenge that leads to exhaustion, lack of concentration, and falling behind in class.

"I felt so drained I would get sick from the stress and fatigue," Charlotte recalls. The burden became so heavy that both students considered the same heartbreaking path: dropping out of university.

This isn’t about poor planning. It’s about hard-working students being pushed below the poverty line by forces outside of their control.

La Trobe is focused on supporting our students to succeed no matter their circumstances. We believe every student deserves that chance. Across our campuses, we already provide a range of student supports including targeted bursaries, financial and wellbeing services, as well as food banks and pantries.

Although our teams work tirelessly to provide emergency relief, demand is soaring. At the Bundoora campus, over 300 students seek help in a single day, and at our regional campuses, pantry shelves are often cleared out.

A donation to our Student Hardship Fund can help us meet rising demand and ensure no student is turned away.

Your generosity allows us to act fast, providing direct payments and bursaries to students facing food insecurity. These funds help ‘steady the semester’, ensuring a student can attend placement nourished, focused, and ready to pursue their dreams.

"It would give me more ability to focus on study by allowing me to have better nutrition and less stress," Lily says.

Make your impact today.

By donating before 30 June, you provide immediate, tax-deductible support that can be the difference between a student dropping out and finishing their degree.

• $25 provides a meal for a student doing it tough.
• $50 helps a student stock their pantry with essential items.
• $250 covers food costs during on-the-job placements.
• $1,000 fully funds a bursary for an entire semester.

If you were forced to choose between a roof over your head, your next meal, or your education, what would you sacrifice?

With your support before June 30, our students will not have to make that choice.