Performing Department
Global Studies and Kinesiology
Non Technical Summary
Recent reports identify a large percentage of college students as food-insecure. Some have even recorded food insecurity among this demographic at over 50%. Quantitative and qualitative data from the University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara City College, and Allan Hancock College confirm a similarly high percentage of food-insecure students amongst their collective total population of more than 61,000 students. Each campus has ongoing programs to alleviate food insecurity, but we currently lack detailed data on the effectiveness of current efforts and a comprehensive, multi-campus, county-wide needs assessment. Recognizing that collaboration can improve efforts on each campus and create a wider reach and more effective use of resources, and that many students transfer from our community colleges to our local UC, we are confident this collaboration can provide a seamless pathway out of food insecurity on our regional college campuses.This planning project will assess the effectiveness of current efforts to alleviate food insecurity and undertake a needs assessment to determine both common regional challenges and campus-specific issues. Under the direction of our Project Director and Co-PIs at each campus, student research assistants will collect data on the efficacy of existing efforts and needs-assessment information, using surveys (900 from three campuses), interviews (40 per campus), and focus groups (minimum 5 per campus). Student fellows at Westmont College will analyze the data and assist in developing a final report, which will be presented at a state-wide conference in July 2019 and published online and in at least one trade journal.The ultimate goal is for this data to direct the subsequent implementation of a far-reaching and effective system to help food-insecure students access needed resources, become more self-sufficient, and eventually become food-secure. Project collaborators also hope that their efforts mays serve as a replicable model for other college districts and multi-campus collaborators more broadly.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
50%
Goals / Objectives
Goals:This project is a collaboration among four colleges (University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara City College, Allan Hancock College, and Westmont College). Three campuses (UCSB, SBCC, and AHC), representing over 61,000, students have found a significant percentage of their students identify as food-insecure, a conclusion supported by larger scale studies that include 2 and 4-year colleges, which has been shown to have a negative impact on student success. The goal of our efforts is to put current and future students on a pathway to food security.In response to identified needs on each campus, some efforts are already underway to address food insecurity, but we have not yet had the resources to fully analyze the effectiveness of these efforts, nor undertaken a full needs assessment to determine specific challenges faced by our respective student populations and identify the various ways to take full advantage of collaborations. The proposed project will address this lack of detailed data and allow us to more effectively design a coordinated system to alleviate food insecurity among college students throughout Santa Barbara County.Specifically, our overarching goal is to survey our college student populations to collect data on the objectives listed below. We will collect this data using student research assistants at each campus, trained in interview-based survey administration, and focus groups guided by faculty mentors. The data will be analyzed by Global Studies Fellows at Westmont College who are part of a high-impact practice program focused on community based research. We recognize that the causes and consequences of food insecurity are complex and that we may have embedded assumptions that need to be evaluated, so initial interviews conducted among food-insecure students on each campus will serve as a pilot program to inform a larger scale needs assessment. Once we have the tools appropriate for the larger needs assessment, we will collect data on a wider scale at each campus using campus online portals, social media, and known participants of existing food programs.We will utilize two primary data collection methods to gather information: 1) developing and administering surveys to determine nutrition outreach program evaluation; and 2) Conducting semi-structured interviews and focus groups in relevant populations to understand community food security needs. Our unique partnership across four campuses provides an opportunity to collaborate in research, learning, and addressing issues of food security across a diverse population of students in Santa Barbara County.Survey tools created will be open-access for all participating institutions and will inform future program development. Results of the research will be collated across institutions to associate variations in programs with desired program outcomes. After this initial planning and pilot phase, the second phase of the project will entail developing data-informed, collaborative, intra-campus outreach programs that combat food security among this vulnerable population. This project will disseminate results to contribute to overall "best practices" in the field of higher education and student success in order to help address food security among college student populations more broadly.In relation to specific CFPCGP goals, our efforts in this planning grant strive toward addressing: (1)(a), meeting the needs of low-income individuals through food distribution, nutrition programs, and access to food; (1)(c), promoting comprehensive responses to local food access; (2)(b), meeting specific local needs through planning for long-term solutions.Objectives:To accomplish our goals, we seek to study our student populations to these ends:(1) to assess the barriers to food security, nutrition and overall wellness among Santa Barbara County food-insecure college students;(2) to evaluate the current food security and campus nutrition programs serving the needs of food-insecure undergraduate and graduate students;(3) to find common issues and similar approaches that we can use to better coordinate and collaborate on multi-campus efforts; and(4) to uncover issues unique to each campus to better meet our students' needs, and to incorporate these within the larger collaborative efforts to address food insecurity among college students.Once this data collection is completed and these needs assessment objectives are met, we propose the following longer-term objectives:(5) to disseminate our findings through peer-reviewed, online, open-source publications and presentations at conferences;(6) to allow the data and analysis collected to direct the development of a more integrated and coherent approach to food insecurity on our respective campuses and across the county; and(7) to make available the resulting products of these efforts to all of our students and to the wider Santa Barbara community
Project Methods
Methodology:Building from prior research and utilizing methods in Empowering Evaluation (Fetterman, 1994) and the Popular Education community organizing model (Wallerstein, 1994; Wiggins, 2012), this project aims to develop qualitative survey tools, conduct relevant data collection, and evaluate findings in order to inform food security program development among college students in Santa Barbara County. Over the past four years, research on food security within migrant populations in Santa Barbara County has produced survey tools in the form of question banks and bilingual semi-structured research protocols. Taking lessons learned and relevant tools, this project will apply these tools to college student populations and develop scalable qualitative assessment pathways through the use of qualitative research data analysis software. The project will also bring together students from diverse institutions to address the challenge of food security among their peers and in their own community. In this way, the project adopts a community-based research pedagogy, aimed at mutual objectives that serve communities and the on-going education of the next generation of problem-solving youth.Empowering Evaluation relies on "the use of evaluation concepts, techniques, and findings to foster improvement and self-determination" and thereby encourages participants to focus on the assets in their community rather than the deficits. This particular model adopts an asset-based perspective (rather than a deficit-based perspective) and builds on community resilience to address issues of food security. For example, interview questions begin with an exploration of "the good life" and hopes and dreams for individuals and institutions. From there, participants are asked to consider ways to reach these goals and the necessary tools to reach these improvements. This stance within research ensures that solutions come from those most impacted by the challenge of food insecurity and allows external evaluation from students and faculty to be equal and ethical partnership with those they intend to serve. This stance reflects the Popular Education model, also known as Freirian and empowerment education, which has been used successfully to create more equitable conditions around the world for more than 50 years. Its use to improve health has been documented in the public health literature since the early 1980s and is an effective method for enhancing empowerment and improving health (Wiggins, 2012).Efforts:Efforts to achieve delivery of our research results include the development of survey questions and techniques; interviews with students and other stakeholders; student focus groups; the production of project reports, delivered to college leadership and other stakeholders; the delivery of research findings at least one conference; the board dissemination of research findings through online publication(s).We are addressing the student population and, therefore, will include students in all aspects of the design and data collection. This provides valuable training and increases our chances of identifying the critical issues. Each campus already has student groups involved with this issue and this pool will provide the interns needed for the project.Using students to collect data from students about food insecurity among students ensures the results will be a plan suitable to address the needs of students. Our hope is that this data will improve our existing efforts and identify other efforts that will transition our efforts from a short-term band-aid to a long-term healing.Evaluation:The success of our planning project will be measured quantitatively and qualitatively by tracking output benchmarks over the course of the grant period, laid out in the following three phases:PHASE 1 - Research and Project DevelopmentPhase 1a: Instrument Development Data Collection Survey: Nutrition Outreach Program EvaluationQualtrics Delivery Platform Set-upResearch Review (Westside Initiative and Food Bank of Santa Barbara)Development of Bilingual ProtocolIRB ApprovalPhase 1b: Student Research Assistant Recruitment and TrainingResearch Assistant RecruitmentTraining Workshop at Westmont College's Global Leadership CenterPhase 1c: Data Analysis Software ConfigurationSPSSAtlas.ti licensesCoding Book configuredPHASE 2 - Data Collection Phase 2a: Program Evaluation Survey Data Collection900 total participantsRecruitment through email and social mediaQualtrics Delivery SoftwarePhase 2b: Needs Assessment - Interviews120 total participants (40 at each campus)Recruitment through nutrition outreach programs, CalFresh, Campus Food PantriesPhase 2c: Needs Assessment - Focus Groups15 total focus groups (5 per campus)3-5 participants per group45-60 minutes in durationPHASE 3 - Data Analysis and Research ResultsPhase 3a: Statistical Survey Data AnalysisAnalysis using SPSSDescriptive statistics to observe central tendencies and dispersion characteristicsPhase 3b: Interview and Focus Group Data AnalysisInterview transcriptionFocus group data hand coded and double-blind codedPhase 3c: Report Summary and DisseminationGrant reporting and budget reconciliationScholarly paper(s) submitted to peer review online publication(s)Data findings in open source outletDissemination in local media outletsPresentation at the Community Environmental Council's annual conferencePresentation at UC/CSU/CCC Sustainability Conference