Robust system-wide essential needs research and evaluation is crucial to understanding students’ lived experiences of hardship and resilience, the effects of basic needs challenges on student well-being and success, and the impact of campus basic needs programs. 

At the Center for Economic Justice and Action, we support a wide range of essential needs research and evaluation, with the goal of providing evidence to policymakers, academic communities, and the families of UC students that our interventions are reducing food and housing insecurity, fostering health and well-being, and increasing retention and student success. 

We are also building a strong learning community of essential needs practitioners and researchers. To join our networks, contact ceja@ucsc.edu.

Call for proposals: CEJA’s UC Essential Needs Research Grant Program (now closed)

The UC Essential Needs Grant Program funds research related to UC students basic/essential and assessments of UC basic/essential needs programs. Awards for a maximum of $100,000 will be considered, with all research activities completed within 12 months. Our first call is now closed. For reference you can read the Guidelines from our first call and view the information session recording or accompanying slides. Please email ceja@usc.edu if you’d like to receive updates on the new call for application in September 2024.

Recent essential needs research publications by UC faculty

The Center for Economic Justice and Action is building a clearinghouse of UC essential needs research.  Some recent publications are listed below. Visit often as our library grows! 

• COVID-19 Pandemic Takes a Toll on Graduate Students’ Food Security and Mental Health: Cross-Sectional Findings from Seven California Public Universities. (2023). Stress & Health. 
  
• Campus Food Pantry Use May Improve Daily Frequency of Fruit and Vegetable Intake Among California University Students Experiencing Food Insecurity. (2023). Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
  
• Helping College Students Get Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Facilitators of and Barriers to Students Accessing the Federal Nutrition Assistance Program (2022). Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.
  
• Campus Food Pantry Use Is Linked to Better Health Among Public University Students (2022). Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.