Care Package Ideas for Your Lonely College Student

Put a young adult fresh out of high school into a new, somewhat intimidating environment called college, and you have a recipe for loneliness. For a homesick student living away from family for the first time, loneliness can be a real challenge to overcome. Even on a busy campus surrounded by hundreds of other students, it can be difficult to make connections.

The Loneliness Epidemic

Healthy relationships are as essential to mental health as good nutrition and regular exercise are to physical health. Loneliness has been described as an American epidemic. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, loneliness was already a public health crisis. The pandemic made the crisis worse, as millions of Americans had a difficult time shaking off the loneliness of forced social isolation.

Loneliness can lead to many physical and emotional health issues, including depression, heart disease, and, most concerningly, a higher risk of suicide. Not to be confused with social isolation, which is deliberately avoiding regular interactions with others, loneliness is a psychological condition. People who describe themselves as lonely feel as if they are isolated, and not by choice. They feel far from friends and family. New college students sometimes feel that they don’t fit in with their current group of roommates or classmates.

Young adults are particularly susceptible to loneliness because they are the first generation to experience isolation via technology. Americans have become a plugged-in society because people communicate mostly by text, email, Instagram, Facebook, and other cell phone apps, instead of through face-to-face interactions. Texting makes it easy for college students to keep in touch with old friends from high school, sometimes reducing the motivation to make new friends on campus.

These texting and FaceTime relationships with old classmates are easy and familiar, whereas making in-person connections with strangers can seem daunting. Because of the ease of technology, modern young adults may lack experience and confidence with face-to-face communication, making it very difficult to make new friends, date, and interview for jobs.

What can be done to combat the epidemic of loneliness, particularly for college students? Many colleges have taken an active role in helping new students adapt by offering fun, creative programs, and on-campus events. Pairing lonely freshmen with upper-classmen mentors has worked for some colleges, helping new students make connections and feel a sense of belonging.

Support is also available through campus student organizations created to bring together people with similar interests. Intramural sports and Greek organizations are usually available, but small clubs reach many who need to find a group of friends who enjoy the same hobbies or pastimes. Whether the interest is Dungeons and Dragons, skydiving, cake-decorating, watercolor painting, or watching horror movies, niche organizations are an excellent device to combat loneliness, and the variety of clubs offered has no limit.

Sending Love from Home

What to do if your student is far from home?

Whether you’re a grandparent, parent, sibling, or friend, college student care packages are an easy way to cheer up a young person struggling with loneliness. What to include in a care package is only limited by the box size and your imagination. Here are a few ideas:

1. Treats from home are a coveted contrast to a steady diet of cafeteria meals. Mom’s homemade cookies and a loaf of grandma’s award-winning banana bread are sure to soothe a homesick soul. Not a baker? Send cookies by mail through a cookie delivery service.
2. Gift cards to a restaurant, gas station, or grocery store would be appreciated by a student who’s managed to burn through his or her monthly budget in five days. Gift cards to movies, putt-putt, or a local ice cream parlor could make it possible for him or her to afford a date night—now if they could only work up the courage to ask someone out.
3. A birthday or holiday gift box filled with gifts, treats, and festive décor would be heart-warming for a student who can’t come home for those special occasions. Who wouldn’t love a Valentine’s Day care package full of cookies, chocolates, and a note of encouragement on a heart-shaped card?
4. Practical items such as first aid supplies, cold medicines, and toiletries aren’t as fun as snickerdoodles and glazed sugar cookies, but they would be welcomed by a student on a budget who’s just come down with the flu.
5. A new board game, book, or DVD could make a snowy weekend more enjoyable. Add some microwaveable popcorn and a cozy fleece throw, and they’re all set to hibernate in comfort and perhaps even ask some friends to join them.

There are many fun ideas for care packages. If your student will appreciate it and it will fit in a shipping box, send it to him or her with a love note from home. It’s a great way to bridge the distance.

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