When Ashley St. Aubin-Clark first set foot on the UW-Eau Claire campus, her vision was to develop her skills as a teacher. What she didn’t expect was qualifying for food stamps and regularly visiting a food pantry during her fourth and fifth years in school. She is one of nearly four million college students nationwide without reliable access to nutritious food, also known as being “food insecure.” It's a challenge faced in the general population, as well. In 2017, nearly 16,000 people — or about 15 percent — in Eau Claire County received FoodShare (formerly known as food stamps) assistance, just below the state average of 16 percent.