Campus payment solutions provider, Transact has partnered with student hunger non-profit, Swipe Out Hunger, to address college student food insecurity. Together, the two organizations will devote resources to better ensuring college students’ success by addressing some of the burdens that hunger can pose to students.

Nationally, one in three college students faces food insecurity. Food insecurity can impact a student’s ability to focus in the classroom, increase the risk of dropout, and lead some to feel isolated from the campus community.

“Students should not have to choose between an education and eating,” says Rachael Sepcic, vice president, Transact. “Our mutual goal is to increase awareness of college hunger, an issue that the majority of people in the U.S. have not really heard about in a public forum.”

Through the new partnership, Transact will donate meals and distribute information about Swipe Out Hunger to campus representatives nationwide through a series of “Food for Thought” informational events.

Transact is also exploring a solution to enable institutions to leverage the Transact platform to address student hunger. This could include product and solution integration to facilitate the distribution of meal funds to students experiencing food insecurity across Transact’s client campuses.

“This partnership with Transact will allow us to not only raise the visibility of the issue of college student food insecurity, but also reach and welcome more campuses in our movement to end student hunger,” says Rachel Sumekh, Founder and CEO of Swipe Out Hunger. “Transact’s leadership demonstrates the pivotal role companies can play in supporting students.”

Transact will share key information with its campus representatives through a combination of in-person and virtual events. For every higher education representative who participates in the “Food For Thought” series, Transact will donate one meal to Swipe Out Hunger for college students experiencing food insecurity.