While rates of food insecurity among various sectors of the Canadian population are well documented, food insecurity among post-secondary students, as a particularly vulnerable population, has emerged in recent years as an area of research. Based on a survey of 548 students in the 2015/16 school year, this exploratory study examines the extent of food insecurity among undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Manitoba. Our study revealed that 35.3 percent of survey respondents faced food insecurity according to a 6-item survey. Of these students, 23.5 percent experienced moderate food insecurity, while 11.8 percent were deemed to be severely food insecure. Using chi-square tests and regression analysis, we compare these rates with various demographic indicators to assess which students appear to be at greater risk of food insecurity, factors contributing to food insecurity, and its effect on their student experience, their health, and their lives in general. In contemplating funding for post-secondary institutions and increases in tuition fees, provincial governments need to consider how this will affect student food insecurity.

Public institutions are increasingly being pressured to demonstrate how they are meeting their responsibilities and obligations to sustainability. Yet there is little academic research on food procurement at universities in Canada. This article examines issues related to procurement of local and sustainable food at two academic institutions in Manitoba: the University of Winnipeg (UW) and the University of Manitoba (UM). Following Brown et al.’s (2012) call for transformational change, we argue that the experiences at each university demonstrate that a food system transformation can best occur by moving away from corporate food service contracts. The ability to do so is dependent on a number of other factors including, but not limited to: political will of the administration, student activism and support from non-university sectors.