Jacqueline Chang

GFI Fellow - Class of 2015

Undergraduate Student, Nutritional Sciences - Dietetics
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources/UC Berkeley

Project

Got Food? Characterizing Student Food Insecurity and Related Factors Throughout UC

Description

Food insecurity can negatively impact academic achievement and health. Our team seeks to understand issues related to food access and food insecurity among University of California students. A food insecurity module consisting of questions adapted from validated tools and new questions informed by cognitive interviews is being administered systemwide to a random sample of students at each of the 10 UC campuses. Data will be analyzed to characterize food insecurity and how UC can better support student access to sustainable and healthful foods.

View poster (PDF)

Goals

The ultimate goal of this project is to understand issues of food access, use of campus resources, prevalence of food insecurity and consequences of food insecurity among UC students, as well as any sociodemographic characteristics that are associated with more or less vulnerability to food insecurity. Ideally, findings will then be used to inform areas where UC as a whole, as well as individual campuses, may strategize to better support students in navigating food-related issues. To date, a food insecurity (FI) module has been pilot-tested and finalized. Four campuses administered the FI module this spring, while the remaining six campuses are in the process of administration. Data will be cleaned and analyzed by August 2015.

Future plans

Moving forward, I hope to finish collecting and interpreting the data collected from the surveys administered on each campus. I will then help to compile reports for each campus summarizing findings and possible recommendations for future practices or programs, based on findings from the data. Ideally, this information will help focus interventions at campus and university levels.

Mentor

Lorrene Ritchie