"Spending all this time stressing and worrying and calculating": Marginal Food Security and Student Life at a Diverse Urban University.

OBJECTIVE Food security status is a continuum ranging from high to very low food security. While marginal food security falls next to high food security on the spectrum, new quantitative research indicates marginal food security status is associated with negative health outcomes and poor academic performance among college students. Qualitative research focusing on college students experiencing marginal food security has not been conducted. This study aims to qualitatively explore experiences of college students with marginal food security and to identify themes to better understand and provide context regarding how marginal food security impacts students. DESIGN Students were recruited for semi-structured interviews with questions designed to study the challenges associated with students' food situations. All interviews were recorded and transcribed with themes identified via an inductive approach. SETTING A large public university on the US west coast. PARTICIPANTS Thirty college students. RESULTS Key themes that emerged: purchasing cheap unhealthy foods; insufficient time to prepare and eat meals on a regular basis; stress and anxiety around the inability to eat healthy food and future health issues; self-perception of health when eating poorly along with physical symptoms; and low academic motivation by not fully participating in their courses due to few healthy food options or missing meals. CONCLUSION Marginal food security can potentially diminish students' health and their capacity to learn and succeed in their coursework. The results emphasize that students experiencing marginal food security should not be grouped with students experiencing high food security.