More Than Marks | Why Food Matters for Student Success
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SU Student Success Initiative Series: Episode Eleven.
Recorded on Thursday 15 October 2026.
Nobody learns, belongs or thrives on an empty stomach. We talk about student success as though it lives in study methods and marks, but for a significant number of students the question that decides the year is far more basic. This conversation is about hunger on campus, who it affects, and what already exists to help.
Jacolette Kloppers hosts the eleventh of 15 conversations on Lunch Club, joined by Dr Melanie Petersen, Programme Manager: Student Access and Success in the Centre for Teaching and Learning; Lizzie Witbooi, social worker at the Centre for Student Counselling and Development; Zintle Matebe, a master’s student in History and Validus Cluster Convenor; and Lwandisile Mhlanga, a master’s student in Industrial Engineering and intern at Development & Alumni Relations.
What we cover in this episode:
- Not a personal failure: Dr Petersen on why the Student Success framework holds that success cannot be attributed to individual effort alone. Food insecurity is a material condition the institution shares responsibility for, not evidence that a student is not trying hard enough.
- How hunger shows up academically: Concentration, attendance, assessment performance and whether a student stays registered at all. These are effects that rarely announce themselves as hunger.
- The calendar of need: Why demand peaks at welcoming, before NSFAS payments arrive, and again from October when allowances stop just as the exam period begins – and what that tells the university about planning support rather than reacting to it.
- Why NSFAS students can be most at risk: Ms Witbooi explains the multi-step approval process behind allowance delays, involving DHET, the Centre for Bursaries and Loans, an allowance survey and registration data. Allowances are sometimes too small, and the funding model shifts every year.
- It is never only about food: What is usually happening behind a request for food assistance – delayed funding, family obligations, housing, transport. Witbooi also explains the strengths perspective in her practice: working from what students and their communities already have, rather than treating students as problems to fix.
- Asking with dignity: Shame and stigma keep students away. What Witbooi has learnt about making it easier to come forward, what happens after a student emails supportus@sun.ac.za, and whether missing middle students qualify too.
- The view from residence: Matebe on what she noticed as a residence mentor and house committee member at Khayalethu about how students cope when money runs short, how clusters and residences can make sure nobody goes hungry, and how to look out for a friend without embarrassing them. As a historian researching the 1976 Soweto Uprising, she also reflects on what student activism teaches us about how change happens at universities.
- Logistics of getting help to people: Mr Mhlanga arrived a day early and was not on the catering list on his first day at SU, a moment that has stayed with him. He discusses ShareBite, what collaboration with Move4Food and student leadership structures could look like, and applies his supply chain training to a real question – how do you get the right help to the right student at the right time, and where are the bottlenecks?
- What he wishes he had known: Through the Mhlanga Foundation, he helps Grade 12 learners in Orange Farm plan for university and find bursaries. He closes with what he would say to a student struggling to make ends meet right now.
Where to find support:
Email supportus@sun.ac.za and the CSCD will contact you within 24 hours to connect you with the right support.
SU website: https://www.su.ac.za/en/students/success – or from the SU homepage, click Students, then Support, then Student Success.
Recorded on Thursday 15 October 2026.
Nobody learns, belongs or thrives on an empty stomach. We talk about student success as though it lives in study methods and marks, but for a significant number of students the question that decides the year is far more basic. This conversation is about hunger on campus, who it affects, and what already exists to help.
Jacolette Kloppers hosts the eleventh of 15 conversations on Lunch Club, joined by Dr Melanie Petersen, Programme Manager: Student Access and Success in the Centre for Teaching and Learning; Lizzie Witbooi, social worker at the Centre for Student Counselling and Development; Zintle Matebe, a master’s student in History and Validus Cluster Convenor; and Lwandisile Mhlanga, a master’s student in Industrial Engineering and intern at Development & Alumni Relations.
What we cover in this episode:
- Not a personal failure: Dr Petersen on why the Student Success framework holds that success cannot be attributed to individual effort alone. Food insecurity is a material condition the institution shares responsibility for, not evidence that a student is not trying hard enough.
- How hunger shows up academically: Concentration, attendance, assessment performance and whether a student stays registered at all. These are effects that rarely announce themselves as hunger.
- The calendar of need: Why demand peaks at welcoming, before NSFAS payments arrive, and again from October when allowances stop just as the exam period begins – and what that tells the university about planning support rather than reacting to it.
- Why NSFAS students can be most at risk: Ms Witbooi explains the multi-step approval process behind allowance delays, involving DHET, the Centre for Bursaries and Loans, an allowance survey and registration data. Allowances are sometimes too small, and the funding model shifts every year.
- It is never only about food: What is usually happening behind a request for food assistance – delayed funding, family obligations, housing, transport. Witbooi also explains the strengths perspective in her practice: working from what students and their communities already have, rather than treating students as problems to fix.
- Asking with dignity: Shame and stigma keep students away. What Witbooi has learnt about making it easier to come forward, what happens after a student emails supportus@sun.ac.za, and whether missing middle students qualify too.
- The view from residence: Matebe on what she noticed as a residence mentor and house committee member at Khayalethu about how students cope when money runs short, how clusters and residences can make sure nobody goes hungry, and how to look out for a friend without embarrassing them. As a historian researching the 1976 Soweto Uprising, she also reflects on what student activism teaches us about how change happens at universities.
- Logistics of getting help to people: Mr Mhlanga arrived a day early and was not on the catering list on his first day at SU, a moment that has stayed with him. He discusses ShareBite, what collaboration with Move4Food and student leadership structures could look like, and applies his supply chain training to a real question – how do you get the right help to the right student at the right time, and where are the bottlenecks?
- What he wishes he had known: Through the Mhlanga Foundation, he helps Grade 12 learners in Orange Farm plan for university and find bursaries. He closes with what he would say to a student struggling to make ends meet right now.
Where to find support:
Email supportus@sun.ac.za and the CSCD will contact you within 24 hours to connect you with the right support.
SU website: https://www.su.ac.za/en/students/success – or from the SU homepage, click Students, then Support, then Student Success.
