Food Aid — UPDATED

According to Malcolm Gladwell, the quality of the food in Bowdoin College's cafeteria is responsible for the school's relatively small enrollment of low income students, as explained in this article from Inside Higher Education.  Vassar, on the other hand, has only mediocre food, but many more students who are eligible for Pell grants.  Gladwell's argument (according to IHE; I haven't listened to his podcast) appears to be that money spent on food could and should be repurposed for financial aid.  

It does seem that Bowdoin is relatively low on the scale of Pell eligible students, who comprise only 14% of its student body, as opposed to 22% at Vassar, but that does not mean that the difference is attributable to the fare in the dining hall?  Other liberal arts colleges seem to be comparable to Bowdoin:  Middlebury (11%), Oberlin (11%), Swarthmore (14%).  

I have been told that Northwestern's student body is 17% Pell eligible, and that President Schapiro has committed to 20% by 2020, with financial aid in the form of grants rather than loans.  I have not eaten in one of our dining halls since my undergrad days (WCAS, 1970), however, although the food was pretty lousy back then.

UPDATE: I have received the following email from Dennis Hutchinson, of the University of Chicago:

As a former Trustee of Bowdoin, I must supply to counterpoint to Gladwell’s post, courtesy of the Bowdoin News  Office:

http://community.bowdoin.edu/news/2016/07/bowdoin-responds-to-malcolm-gladwells-food-fight-podcast/  I was very happy to cast  a vote for the College’s no-loan policy. Gladwell has become the master of the non-sequitur.

Cheers,

Dennis