Why Some U.S. Medical Students (Especially Those of Color) Face Food Insecurity

In a medical system where “do no harm” is a core tenet, the very individuals training to provide critical patient care are often unable to eat nutritious meals. As counterintuitive as it may seem, future doctors throughout the United States face significant challenges in accessing healthy, affordable food needed to power through long days over many years of study and residency.

A recent American Medical Association (AMA) report highlights that over 20 percent of medical students face food insecurity — nearly double the national average. “Researchers surveyed 1,834 medical students at eight U.S. medical schools, finding that 21.2 percent reported being food insecure,” the report read. “They found that being of certain races or ethnicities, having dependents, and having financial need were linked to even higher rates of food insecurity.”

The burden is higher for students of color and those from lower-income families. The cost of medical school is so high that it might seem odd to hear that a medical student could be enrolled yet unable to sustain the cost of their daily bread.

Charlisa Gibson, MD, a pulmonary and critical care attending physician, and Keeran Navaratnam, a third-year medical student at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, sat down with BlackDoctor Pro to explain some of the complex reasons for this.

What Recent Research Tells Us About Future Doctors and Hunger

The landmark study published in JAMA Network Open surveyed over 1,800 students and found that minority students were significantly more likely to experience hunger. Black students were nearly three times more likely to be food insecure than their white peers, while Southeast Asian students faced over five times the odds. 

These disparities are often tied to the lack of a financial safety net. While some students can rely on parental assistance, a factor that significantly decreased food insecurity, many students of color come from families that don’t have financial cushions. 

Navaratnam notes that socio-economic class plays a big part in who gets into medical school, who thrives, and who eats. In his class, many medical students are children of doctors, so tuition costs and food insecurity aren’t an issue for them. But many others must work alongside medical school, seek government assistance (such as loans or food stamps), or overcome the limitations of food deserts to survive this lengthy training period.

“I think institutions where you pay a lot of money to go to understand that if there’s money available for you to attend, then there’s money available for you to spend elsewhere,” Navaratnam says. “So, if anything, the things close by [campus] are going to be a little bit more expensive rather than subsidized.” 

Dr. Gibson notes that when asked why the learning institutions couldn’t offer low-cost, highly nutritious food on campus for medical students and trainees, she says they just don’t consider it their responsibility to plug the hunger gap.

More than Food, There’s a Scarcity of Time

Navaratnam agreed that when money isn’t the problem, time is.“You could call it imposed food insecurity due to the fact that [students are] so busy and there’s really not a whole lot of time or education on how you can prepare yourself for rotations in medical school,” he explains.

With medical student schedules jam-packed, very little lead time, and classroom demands interspersed, he says that even meal prep feels like a sacrifice. Based in Baltimore, he notes that the city’s food deserts present a challenge not just for city residents but also for medical students moving there to work. The time it takes to get healthy groceries is precious time students don’t have. Having a car or relying on food delivery both cost money.

“I took three gap years, so I learned how to cook,” Navaratnam says. “I grew up cooking, so I learned how to meal-prep before I came in, but I live with three other medical students. One comes from a pretty affluent background, so I’ve never seen him cook in our kitchen for three years — he has bought food every single day. Another student is learning to cook in his first year, and it’s a struggle. He doesn’t have a car, so he relies a lot on frozen meals. But he’s lucky enough that he can afford to DoorDash groceries, which is a huge thing that a lot of medical students do these days.”

Despite the psychological weight of the competitive, high-stakes environment of medical school, Navaratnam says he feels meal prep is a must, even if it takes valuable time he could spend studying or resting. “When you’re not eating enough or not eating healthy, your anxiety spikes,” he notes.

Dr. Gibson says she has often chosen less healthy but more filling meals because she wasn’t sure when her schedule would allow time for her next meal. The normalization of unhealthy self-care habits for healthcare professionals starts in medical school and, unfortunately, is seen as vital preparation for life as a successful doctor. 

Unlike in other fields of undergraduate study, medical students have virtually no time for part-time employment to bridge the financial gap, and the rigid rotation schedule often leaves no room even to seek out affordable groceries or prep healthy meals. When the calendar is packed with mandatory lectures, clinical shifts, and late-night study sessions, healthy eating feels like a luxury. 

Future Doctors Don’t Learn about Nutrition as Self-Care 

Despite being taught the clinical importance of nutrition for patients, there is a glaring absence of nutrition-as-self-care within medical culture. Interestingly, when asked to envision a “magic wand” solution to this crisis, the dialogue between Dr. Gibson and Navaratnam revealed a telling gap: they didn’t reach for structural fixes. 

Both said they didn’t even consider institutional interventions — like longer biological breaks for students, affordable health food options near hospitals, or meal plans integrated into tuition to alleviate the need to think about food gaps — because it seemed so far-fetched for hospitals or universities even to consider the needs of medical students.

“I personally am [interested] about nutrition because I want to be able to speak about these things with my patients in the future,” Navarantram says. “I think it’s important on a level of preventative medicine. But we don’t learn any of these things in medical school.”

By failing to integrate basic nutritional needs into the curriculum or clinical environment, medical institutions ignore that a hungry doctor is prone to burnout — and mistakes. 

Not Being Able to Afford Food in Med School is Seen as a Personal Failure

Critics often suggest that students simply need better money and time management, a narrative that frames hunger as a personal failure. 

Dr. Gibson emphasizes that incoming medical students should be more aware of the structural challenges they’ll face beyond the academic ones. She notes that with new federal student loan caps taking effect in July of this year, disparities will be exacerbated between those who are affluent enough to pay for medical school without loans and those who are reliant on loans to complete their education. 

Navaratnam captures the frustration of this dynamic perfectly. “Getting into medical school is pretty discriminatory,” he says. “Nowadays, people spend thousands of dollars on MCAT prep. They pay thousands of dollars to get into medical school. They apply to forty schools. Each is a couple of hundred dollars for applications before loans. So, the students who are even able to attend medical school can afford these things. 

He believes that medical schools are environments that attract students who have already come from affluent backgrounds. “I personally don’t come from a very affluent background, but I’m fortunate to be here and to have been able to afford applications, studying for the MCAT, and these kinds of things,” he explains. “I recognize that privilege every day, and I think about the fact that there are people who deserve to be here who couldn’t be because of their finances.” 

These conflicted feelings of gratitude and indebtedness play into students’ guilt about admitting they struggle to afford healthy meals while training to join one of the highest-paying professions. 

Navaratnam says it took him nearly two years to learn he could qualify for food stamps, and he navigated the process on his own, with no help from the school. Although he feels no shame about getting the help he needs to make it through his schooling, he says other students often don’t know about the resources available to them and instead rely primarily on parents and on-campus events where food is served.

The Effects of Food Insecurity After Graduation and Training

Dr. Gibson adds that above all else, it is important to know that the habits adapted to manage the pressures of medical school should not become a life sentence. She says that even after she was a practicing physician, with more time and funds available, she kept making less-than-optimal healthy food choices. 

“I didn’t prioritize my health in a way that really mattered, even though I could afford to, because it was ingrained for me that that was not a priority, and it only became a priority when a health scare happened,” she says. “I didn’t start to make those changes until I was at a point where I may have fewer years to enjoy life. I made the change in my late thirties, but really and truly, I could’ve afforded to make [healthy lifestyle changes] ten years earlier.” 

Resources Available to Help

If you are a medical student experiencing food insecurity, it is vital to remember that this is a systemic issue, not a personal one. Resources are available, including the expansion of SNAP eligibility for certain students with high financial need who meet specific work-study or EFC criteria. 

Many campuses now host “no-questions-asked” food pantries, and students are encouraged to contact their Office of Student Affairs regarding emergency “Basic Needs” grants that do not require repayment. 

Ask your school for a list of food resources; they should provide a roster of on- and off-campus pantry options. Also, consider apps like Too Good to Go. If the problem is learning how and what to cook, try UMASS’s free video resources.

The Physicians Association for Nutrition also has funding opportunities for medical students to promote and serve plant-based food on their campuses.

Organizations like the AMA and the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) are also advocating for better loan structures, adjusted cost-of-attendance (COA) figures, and institutional support to help students move beyond constant “survival mode.” Personal finance sites and blogs like White Coat Investor and SalaryDr can help doctors and current medical students assess their earning potential and build financial habits that promote healthy wellness and personal growth over time.