Problem-solving challenges: operating a campus food pantry to improve student success

ABSTRACT

As of June 2018, over 640 college campuses were registered with the College and University Food Bank Alliance, an organization that supports campuses currently operating or interested in opening a pantry. However, a dearth of research exists that examine how campus pantries function: what unique challenges do campus pantries face and how do pantry staff creatively address these challenges? In October 2016, researchers collected qualitative data during a problem-solving workshop at a daylong summit of 28 pantry representatives from 16 Michigan college campuses. Pantry staff documented their biggest challenges and then collectively brainstormed solutions. Researchers used consensus qualitative research coding procedures to generate common themes. Four overarching themes, and 11 sub-themes, emerged out of the 51 challenges and 117 solutions generated by participants: (1) infrastructure and resources, (2) operating within university systems, (3) building and sustaining partnerships, and (4) data, research, and assessment. The challenges and solutions generated by participants reflect the distinctiveness of campus pantry work relative to community-based pantries and underscore challenges and potential best practices of operating a pantry within a university system. These findings help campus administrators and pantry staff anticipate and address food security as an increasingly necessary strategy for student success and educational equity.

KEYWORDS:

• Campus pantries
• food insecurity
• consensus qualitative research
• student success
• higher education

Acknowledgement

The CUP research team is grateful for the contributions of our undergraduate research team members: Samyka Aloyo, Asma Al-Khshali, Monica De Roche, and Teiana McGahey.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Carmel E. Price is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and affiliate faculty of Women’s and Gender Studies and the Center for Arab American Studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. She earned her PhD in Sociology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; her MSW from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana; and her BA in Elementary Education and Psychology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Dr. Price conducts research focused on food insecurity and environmental justice using community-based participatory research methods. She teaches courses on contemporary social problems, quantitative research methods, and poverty and inequality.

Emma Watters is a graduate student in Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Watters was previously a research assistant with the CUP research team. Her research interests are in policy issues related to health equity, poverty and inequality.

Harmony A. Reppond is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. She earned her MA in Experimental Psychology from San Jose State University and her PhD in Psychology and Feminist Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Dr. Reppond’s research focuses on the social psychological and policy dimensions of social class. Specifically, she examines the intersections of classism, sexism, and racism of economic inequality, as well as the causes and consequences of poverty, homelessness, and food insecurity. She is a faculty expert with the University of Michigan Poverty Solutions Strategic Initiative.

Natalie R. Sampson, PhD, MPH conducts community-engaged research to inform local and national efforts to achieve environmental justice and food security. Dr. Sampson is an Assistant Professor of Public Health at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, where she teaches courses in environmental health, community organizing, and health promotion. She applies participatory and action research approaches with a broad toolkit, including photovoice, surveys, interviews, concept mapping, and health impact assessment to examine and address complex social and environmental determinants of health.

Karen Thomas-Brown received her bachelor’s degree and PhD at the University of the West Indies, Mona. While completing her doctoral studies, she earned a Commonwealth Scholarship to complete her dissertation analysis at the University of Liverpool in the UK. Her doctoral research focused on urban development in Jamaica and covered themes related to globalization, global-local dynamics, and urban development and planning. Dr. Thomas-Brown also holds an Executive Certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University. She has published over thirty articles, three books, and a plethora of technical reports. Her research focuses on the intersectionality of diversity, equity, spatiality, and power structures.

Notes

1. The first annual Michigan College Campuses Food Pantry Summit, and this related manuscript, were supported by the University of Michigan-Dearborn's Office of Metropolitan Impact and Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.