Using the social ecological model to evaluate university faculty and staff perceptions of the campus food environment

ABSTRACT

The study purpose was to examine faculty and staff perspectives of healthy eating opportunities on a rural, southern university campus using qualitative research methods informed by the Social Ecological Model. Eight focus group discussions with faculty and staff were conducted and analyzed using an inductive and deductive thematic analysis approach. Enablers to healthy eating on campus included an intrinsic desire to make healthy choices, food presentation, and campus wellness programming. Barriers included inconvenience, poor food availability, lackluster presentation, inaccurate menu/portion sizes, cost, and unawareness of options. Participants suggested providing more healthy and fresh foods, offering ‘grab-and-go’ options, and expanding campus nutrition education. Future efforts should incorporate specific solutions provided by participants in this study. Investment in marketing to faculty/staff about nutrition resources available and how to effectively encourage the selection of healthy foods from campus dining venues would also be warranted.

KEYWORDS:

• Food environment
• socio-ecological model
• qualitative
• workplace
• faculty/staff

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a university grant supporting a campus wellness program (funder did not want details reported);