Food Systems Major

October 9, 2024

Alex Ball

Tell us about your background and why you chose UW? I actually came to UW to study marine biology, and there aren’t many opportunities for that in the Midwest! Even after I changed my path, I still wanted to move somewhere else to grow as an individual person. What influenced you to major in Food…

May 1, 2024

Creating a Photovoice Methodology: Documenting Food Insecurity Among UW Students

Students worked with UW researchers to outline a photovoice study examining food insecurity among college students. The team read and analyzed peer-reviewed journals on the photovoice technique, food insecurity, and other related topics, then created a step-by-step process for the potential photovoice study to be approved by the Institutional Review Board. The goal of the…

Examining Research on College Student Food Security

Students researched food insecurity among college students (focusing on the past 5 years) and how racial plays a role, compiling their findings into an annotated bibliography that will be submitted for IRB certification as part of a future UW research project. The team also organized their annotations into an accessible public database, which includes the…

Policies to Support College Student Food Security: Legislative Fact Sheets

Students worked with WashPIRG to advance the creation and support of a bill to sustainably address college student food insecurity. The team created three legislative fact sheets highlighting the severity, urgency, and inequity of the current landscape of student food insecurity in King County, Washington state, and the United States as a whole. Community Partner: Beatrice…

Policies to Support College Student Food Security: Legislation in Other Countries

WashPIRG sought support to investigate and present concise information about potential policies from other countries that could be implemented in Washington to support college student food security. The team focused on researching legislation from the top eight countries with the highest food security and lobbied with WashPIRG on their hunger and homelessness legislation. Community Partner:…

Equitable Food Security Policies in the U.S.

Students supported WashPIRG’s work to leverage the food policy system to address growing rates of student food insecurity by analyzing legislation from across the United States to synthesize possible campus hunger reduction frameworks. The team also participated in WashPIRG’s lobbying activities to contextualize their research, and produced 13 summaries for the organization and other stakeholders…

Identifying Funding Structures for the UW Food Pantry

Through extensive research and outreach, students investigated different funding models and support systems used by food pantries across the country to identify potential sustainable funding structures for the UW Food Pantry. Their goal was to help enhance the Pantry’s capacity to support student well-being and academic success, fostering a more sustainable and equitable campus environment….

Funding Food Security for the Local UW Community

Due to rising food insecurity rates on the UW Seattle campus, the UW Food Pantry – which provides low-barrier food access to all UW students, faculty, and staff – asked the team to help locate sustainable funding resources to better address the increase the demand for their services. The team collaborated with the Pantry to…

Rescuing and Gleaning: Creating a Framework for Building Community Partnerships

Students supported the UW Food Pantry’s mission of reducing food insecurity on campus by creating a “partnership-building framework” to help facilitate new relationships between the organization and community businesses. The team used Public Health – Seattle & King County’s restaurant safety rating database and Google Maps data to determine whether a potential business-pantry partnership was…

Guide to Gleaning: Enhancing Food Recovery at the University of Washington

In addition to sourcing food through donations and donor-based funding, the organization UW Food Pantry rescues and gleans food to increase the amount of resources they can provide for the community while simultaneously combating food waste. Students collaborated with the UW Food Pantry to improve and streamline their current gleaning process: they updated, synthesized, and…