Campus Food Insecurity : Unpacking Definitions of Quality, Availability and Affordability of Food at UBC Vancouver

The Undergraduate Experience Survey (UES) currently asks students about their satisfaction with the quality, costs, and availability of healthy and nutritious foods on campus. However, the data collected does not provide insight to students’ understanding of the concepts nor their reasons for the satisfaction rating given. Through this project, we aim to gather information on how students interpret “cost”, “availability” and “quality” of healthy food on campus, along with their overall food experience on campus, with a focus on the latter. The results of this project will lead to future actions that will help achieve the UBC Wellbeing Strategy for a “nutritionally sound campus (UBC Wellbeing, 2017).” Our situational assessment included communications with community partner Natasha Moore, Melissa Baker, the former Manager of Nutrition & Wellbeing at Student Housing and Hospitality Services (SHHS), and literature review to determine steps taken when assessing students’ perceptions of campus foods. We determined using a survey and focus groups were ideal in collecting data, along with use of the Social Ecological Model (SEM) to assess students’ responses. As described in the report, the project outputs include an initial survey that provides insight on the clarity of questions to be used in the focus group surveys, and to provide an initial outlook on students’ understanding of the terms in question. Two, one-hour focus groups were conducted to further assess students’ experiences with the food environment at UBC as it relates to cost, availability and quality of healthy foods. Themes that are discussed hereon in relation to the Social Ecological Model. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”Land and Food Systems, Faculty ofUnreviewedUndergraduat