Peer Navigators: Empowering Students to Support Students

At the Student Basic Needs Coalition (SBNC), we believe that no student should have to choose between paying tuition and putting food on the table. Yet, we know that across the country, students are doing exactly that — skipping meals, working multiple jobs, and struggling to stay in school. The good news? Students themselves are often the most powerful force for change. That’s where our Peer Navigator Program comes in.

Our peer navigators are student leaders who are trained to connect their classmates to essential resources like SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), housing support, and other basic needs services. They know the barriers firsthand, and they know how to meet their peers where they are — whether that’s through campus tabling, classroom presentations, social media outreach, or one-on-one conversations.

Why Peer Navigators?

Research has consistently shown that students are more likely to listen to and trust their peers. That trust matters, especially when it comes to tackling the stigma around food insecurity and public benefits. Too often, eligible students don’t apply for SNAP simply because they don’t know they qualify or feel too intimidated by the process. Our peer navigators help cut through that confusion, offering clear, relatable guidance and direct support with applications.

This program is about more than just outreach — it’s about outcomes. Every dollar invested in our peer navigator program returns $23 in food assistance to students. Last year alone, our peer navigators helped connect students to over $1 million in SNAP benefits. But these numbers only tell part of the story.

Impact Beyond Numbers

Take, for example, a student from Chicago who reached out after seeing an Instagram ad posted by one of our peer navigators. That ad led to a conversation, an application, and ultimately, much-needed food assistance throughout graduate school. In their words:

"You have truly made such an impact on my life by informing me (on an Instagram ad of all places!) of my eligibility for food stamps throughout graduate school. Thanks to your help, I was able to choose healthier options and have the burden of expensive groceries lifted at a time where that would have been incredibly hard to pay for."

Stories like these remind us why we do this work — and why student leadership is so central to the solution.

Developing Future Leaders

Our peer navigators aren’t just helping others; they’re gaining invaluable skills themselves. These students — many of whom are first-generation, low-income, and from underrepresented backgrounds — are building leadership, advocacy, and communication skills that will serve them long after graduation. Most of them are pursuing careers in human services, social work, public health, and education — fields that desperately need more diverse, empathetic leaders who understand these challenges from lived experience.

We make it a priority to pay our peer navigators a living wage. By doing so, we’re not only recognizing their critical contributions but also breaking the cycle of unpaid labor that often excludes low-income students from professional development opportunities.

Scaling the Impact

Currently, SBNC’s peer navigator program is active on 15 campuses across the country — from Portland Community College to Arkansas State University Mountain Home, Johnson College in Pennsylvania, and beyond. Our goal is to scale this work, placing two trained peer navigators on each campus and supporting them with resources, training, and toolkits. Each pair of peer navigators has the potential to reach 1,000 students or more over the course of a year.

We’re also focused on sustainability. We don’t just drop into a campus and leave. We work closely with administrators, helping them integrate peer-led outreach into their broader basic needs strategy. In fact, one of our key projects this year is developing a public-facing toolkit based on our program model so that other colleges can replicate this approach.

What’s Next

As we look ahead, we’re excited to deepen this work and expand into new regions — especially community colleges, Minority-Serving Institutions, and rural campuses where resources are often limited. We’re also investing in research to measure not only the direct impact of our peer navigators but also their role in building community and inspiring civic engagement among students.

At SBNC, we believe that real solutions are driven by those who experience the challenges firsthand. Our peer navigators are living proof of that philosophy in action. They are building stronger campuses, changing lives, and shaping the future of higher education.

If you’d like to support this work or learn more about how to bring peer navigators to your campus, visit us at https://www.studentbasicneeds.com/snapintoaction.