This collaborative, community-engaged research project will help SNAC to better understand students using their services and how the program impacts their lives. Additionally, the project will determine awareness and attitudes among USU students regarding SNAC services. Finally, the project will assess food security issues of USU students in the Statewide system. Findings from this research will support efforts to secure and maintain internal and external funding for SNAC. Recommendations will also be provided for current and future practice, research, and policy.
Assessment of Food Security Challenges
Project Details
This project is proposed as a threaded project across three undergraduate social work research classes (Fall 2023) and two undergraduate community and organizational practice classes (Spring 2023). There is also potential for student and faculty involvement from NDFS.
The anticipated research goals include:
- Determine awareness and support of SNAC among USU populations (i.e., students, staff, and faculty)
- Identify common characteristics of current SNAC service users
- Evaluate individual health (physical and mental), social, and economic impacts of SNAC on service users
- Assess food security issues of USU students in the Statewide system
The anticipated research design is likely to be explanatory sequential mixed methods with two phases: Phase one - Quantitative (i.e., survey) and Phase two - Qualitative (i.e., interviews, focus groups).
The anticipated outputs include:
- full report of findings and recommendations for key collaborators
- short report to be distributed publicly for USU community and stakeholders (five pages or less)
- infographic with most important findings for USU community and stakeholders
- one manuscript to be submitted to the Transforming Communities journal
- presentation to partner panel, USU administrative leaders, and others as deemed appropriate
- one or more student poster(s) at the Center for Community Engagement’s Annual Celebration (Spring 2024)
- one presentation at a state or national conference
The anticipated timeline is:
- Project Planning and Design: August to October 2023
- Phase 1 Data Collection: October & November 2023
- Phase 1 Preliminary Data Analysis: December 2023
- Phase 2 Data Collection: January & February 2023
- Phase 1 & 2 Data Analysis: February & March 2023
- Reporting/Outputs: April-June 2023 (presentations & reports) and June-August 2023 (state/national presentation & manuscript)
Final details will be determined through meetings with the community partner panel; however, this is a summary of the project ideas upon initial discussions. This project will be a community-engaged research initiative, meaning that all collaborators have a voice throughout the design, implementation, reporting, and evaluation process. Strong connection and commitment are critical for success in all stages.