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What’s really on students’ plates?

13 October 2025 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Anja Aucamp

Students at the UFS are making daily food choices under tight budgets. The 2025 Food Environment Survey by the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics sheds light on these challenges.

What’s for dinner? For most students, that question is about more than taste. It’s about budgets, storage space, time, and whether the food will even last until tomorrow. At the University of the Free State (UFS), researchers have been listening closely to students’ experiences, and the results tell a powerful story.

Earlier surveys in 2020 and 2022 showed that many UFS students struggle with food insecurity and that hunger is linked to academic performance. Now, the new 2025 UFS Food Environment Survey digs deeper, providing fresh data on how students plan, shop, store and stretch their food.

The release comes at the perfect moment: the world is about to mark World Food Day on 16 October 2025 under the theme, Hand in Hand for Better Foods and a Better Future. At the UFS, that spirit of “hand in hand” is already at work through the Eat & Succeed programme and the efforts of the Food Environment Task Committee (FETC), the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, the Food Environment Office, the Department of Sustainable Food Systems and Development, and the Division of Student Affairs’ vegetable tunnels where academic and support staff are working together to build a healthier, more supportive food environment.

Navigating food choices on a tight budget

Led by Prof Louise van den Berg, Associate Professor from the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, the 2025 survey received replies from 1 586 undergraduates, a group that reflects the student body. The findings confirm what many already know: students are resourceful, but they’re also facing real challenges.

On average, students eat from three food groups a day, instead of the recommended five. Many skip on protective foods like fruit, vegetables and dairy; not because they don’t want them, but because they’re harder to afford or to keep fresh. Almost a third of students don’t have a fridge, and those who do often share small spaces. That means foods like milk, cheese, yoghurt, fruit and vegetables can go off in just a day or two. For students living on tight NSFAS budgets, buying fresh food often feels like a gamble. She says the risk of food spoiling often outweighs the benefit of buying it at all.

Shopping habits reflect these pressures too. Many students shop only once or twice a month, favouring shelf-stable foods like maize meal, noodles, and canned goods. “While such foods can fill stomachs and stretch budgets, they do not provide the same balance of nutrients as diets that regularly include fresh produce, lean proteins, and dairy,” comments Prof Van Den Berg.

She continues, pointing out another finding: when buying food on campus, students place price and convenience above everything else. “This highlights not a lack of interest in eating healthily, but rather the practical decisions students must make every day with limited money, limited time, and limited storage.”

Still, it’s not all bad news. The survey shows that most students are already making smart choices by limiting sugary drinks and salty snacks. The main gap is simply access to affordable, perishable foods that boost health and concentration.

That’s where the UFS initiatives come in. The Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, the FETC, and the Food Environment Office are working to raise awareness through programmes such as Eat & Succeed by sharing practical shopping tips, affordable healthy options, and exploring ways to improve access to safe food storage on campus. Prof Van Den Berg also believes that small, practical changes, such as making fruit and vegetables more available at fair prices, or helping students to learn how to stretch groceries further, can have a big impact on student wellbeing.

Supporting students to eat well and succeed

The results of the latest survey show that our students aren’t careless with their diets. They’re doing the best they can with what they have. “Our job is to make it easier for them to ensure that they can purchase affordable, portion-sized fruit, vegetables and dairy products without worrying about storage or spoilage. Such initiatives would help bridge the gap between financial constraints and the need for protective foods in students’ diets,” says Prof Van den Berg.

At the end of the day, the 2025 Food Environment Survey is about more than statistics only. It’s about listening to students, understanding their daily struggles, and finding real solutions, because when students have the right fuel, they have a much better chance of succeeding; both in the classroom and in life.

News Archive

International Year of Crystallography attracts science experts from across the globe

2014-10-13

Video: Discover what Chrystallopgraphy can do for you
Video: Celebrating Crystallography: An Animated Adventure

Summit programme

The third world summit in the International Year of Crystallography (in Africa) will be hosted by the UFS Department of Chemistry here on the Bloemfontein Campus. Prof André Roodt, Head of the Department of Chemistry, was elected as the President of the European Crystallographic Association in 2012. Earlier this year he unveiled the Max von Laue 'Plaque' in Posnan, Poland.

The Pan-African Meeting of the International Year of Crystallography consists of a congress and summit. The details are as follows:

Congress
12–15 October 2014
CR Swart Senate Hall, UFS Bloemfontein Campus

Summit
15–17 October 2014
CR Swart Senate Hall, UFS Bloemfontein Campus
Summit opening: Wednesday 15 October 2014 at 14:00 in the CR Swart Senate Hall

This event will be opened and attended by:
•   the UFS Rector and Vice-Rector – Profs Jonathan Jansen and Corli Witthuhn;
•   the acting Director-General of the Department of Science and Technology – Dr Thomas Auf der Heyde;
•   the acting CEO of the National Research Foundation – Dr Gansen Pillay;
•   the UNESCO Vice-Director for Science Extension – Dr Jean-Paul Ngome-Abiaga (Paris, France);
•   the representative of the Executive Committee for the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) – Prof Santiago Garcia-Granda (Oviedo: Spain);
•   the marketing director of the IUCr – Prof Michele Zema (Pavia, Italy);
•   the President of the European Crystallographic Association (ECA) – Prof André Roodt, who will officially open the summit on Wednesday 15 October 2014 from 14:00–15:30.

Presenters from across Africa and Europe will deliver papers at this event which will be attended by more than 100 delegates from twenty-plus countries, including Spain, France, Italy, Croatia, Germany, Russia and India.

Numerous crystallographic research areas will be covered. This includes:
•   powder diffraction,
•   small molecule crystallography,
•   biological crystallography,
•   industrial crystallography,
•   surface crystallography,
as well as techniques such as
•   electron microscopy and
•   synchrotron work.

“At this event we hope to establish an African Crystallographic Association,” said Prof Roodt.

The United Nations declared 2014 as the International Year of Crystallography. It was recently officially opened at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France, by the Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon.

The International Year of Crystallography celebrates the centennial of the work of Max von Laue and the father and son, William Henry and William Laurence Bragg. More generally, it celebrates what crystallography can do for humanity – which proves to be a significant amount.

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