CBS’s report on campus food insecurity out of UC Davis served its viewers with an unexpected dose of absurdist theater. The report also stands as both an accidental call for fundamental reforms of the American secondary education system, and an ominous look forward should reform not happen.
Watch as correspondent Elise Preston chronicles the absolute explosion of campus food pantries, and gets a mild earful about inflation:
LESLIE KEMP: A dollar today buys a third of the commodities that it bought when I was in school.
PRESTON: There are now close to 800 food pantries on college campuses. A decade ago, there were just 80. UC Davis was one of the first to open up its pantry, buried in the basement. Now the pantry is at the heart of the campus. It’s not intended for those with a meal plan or who can afford groceries, but it’s open to anyone with a…
