Structural equation modeling (SEM) considering how students' non-cognitive attributes influence first-year college student persistence remain extraordinarily rare--as are studies that test and expand upon published structural models or studies that include college student food security. This study addresses each. We surveyed "Beginner" Freshmen, capturing eight non-cognitive measurements and using institutional data on performance and fall-to-fall persistence measures, we then tested the structure of Bowman et al.'s (Res High Educ 60:135-152, 2019) SEM model. In Model 1, we mimic the Bowman model's financial variable by only including financial stress. We confirm that Bowman is a good structural model of student persistence, although our data were collected for another purpose, using different scales for non-cognitive elements and even one different non-cognitive measurement. We found students' non-cognitive attributes remain importantly influential to social adjustment (r=0.65), commitment to persist (r=0.40), college GPA (r=0.25), and fall-to-fall persistence (r=0.30). In Model 2, we generated a latent financial security variable incorporating financial stress and food security. Including food security generated a direct influence from the financial security variable to high-school GPA (r=0.25), not found in the Bowman model or Model 1, and a direct significant relationship from financial security to social adjustment (r=0.11)--not found in Model 1. Further changes are observed in the indirect relationship from financial security to college GPA from Model 1 (r=0.29) to Model 2 (r=0.51). We highlight the robustness of the Bowman model and that the inclusion of food security brings increased strength to several relationships without sacrificing optimal fit.