A North Texas college student is fighting hunger by creating a free cookbook for those experiencing food insecurity.
Alexandra Mack, a nutrition and dietetics senior at Texas Woman’s University, wrote up a free cookbook called Apartment Friendly Cooking as part of her capstone research project.
The cookbook is filled with easy recipes using only ingredients that can be found at Minerva Market, a free, on-campus pantry at TWU that helps fill the gap for college students who are on a tight budget.
“I wanted to show students that you can create tasty, healthy meals with the pantry staples,” Mack said in a news release by the university. “It is difficult, but I did the hard work for them.”
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Mack’s capstone, a requirement to graduate from the honors program, centered on exploring and improving food insecurity among TWU college students.
“College food insecurity isn’t talked about as much because I think people assume college students are on meal plans,” Mack said. “I didn’t realize until I was doing my research how many college students struggle with having enough food.”
One out of three college students face food insecurity nationally, according to Swipe Out Hunger, a nonprofit that addresses hunger among college students. In her research, Mack referenced a survey-based study done by a TWU PhD student and TWU professors that found 49.2% of the student population was found to have low or very low food security.
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Mack spent months cooking and tweaking healthy recipes using easy ingredients and that are easy to make with just a microwave or simple kitchen access. She ended up with two cookbooks – one for microwave cooking to cater to those who don’t have a kitchen and another for those who have access to a kitchen but need healthy, simple recipes that don’t break the bank.
Mack hopes her recipes can not only be helpful but also help lower stigma, which she believes is the root of college food insecurity.
“If people could come to the market, get some recipes along with the food and then go home and make it themselves, that might feel empowering to them,” she said.
