Professional Documents
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Revised Research Project Part 2
Revised Research Project Part 2
https://studentfoodco.wixsite.com/studentfoodco/about_us
that sells fresh and affordable produce to students on campus twice a week. Their mission
is “ to make nutritious food accessible to all and to help the busy college student live
campus and found that 40% of students on campus were food insecure, largely due to
produce near campus being too expensive and grocery stores being difficult to reach
without a car.
The nonprofit has been around since 2012; however, as a student on campus I can
say the nonprofit is not very well known. While I believe this source is reliable and not
biased, I think there is still lots of room for improvement regarding the issue of student
food insecurity on campus, as it is still considered a problem 7 years after the start of this
project.
Blackwell, Deborah. “Students Package Unused Food for Distribution to Those in Need.”
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/11/students-package-unused-food-for-
distribution-to-those-in-need/
Two times a week, Harvard University student volunteers help package surplus
food in the dining hall into individual meals to feed families in the area that experience
chronic hunger. The food they donate is frozen due to safety concerns. According to the
article, after every meal, at every dining hall at Harvard, there are about five pounds of
food left over. This equates to each dining hall at Harvard having enough food left over
Harvard’s program can inspire ways to make Michigan Kitchen a reality. For example,
the article mentions Harvard freezing the leftover food to prevent the food from going
bad. This is a smart idea that our nonprofit could use too to help pass the strict health
codes involving food. However, it does raise the questions where can we freeze the food
and how we can store it. We must also consider how to package the meals and how much
it will cost to get the supplies to package them. Finding and coordinating with both
volunteers and dining services is an additional concern that must be addressed. It may be
smart to begin this project with only one or two dining halls on campus to make it easier
to manage and handle. Even though the concept of donating surplus food in the dining
hall to food insecure students seems simple and straightforward, there are many logistics
Catherine Nouhan Daily Staff Reporter. “CSG Discusses Resolution to Create Subsidized Meal
government/csg-food-insecurity.
The article points out solutions that the Central Student Government for UM are
proposing and trying to create. The resolution proposed at the conference would be a
pilot program to combat food insecurity. They discussed how the program would allow
Pell Grant recipients to apply for a reduced meal plan through University dining halls.
Fifty Pell Grant students per semester would receive a subsidized meal plan and pay only
$7 per meal instead of the current rate of $16 a meal in the dining halls. This would be a
great plan for affordable meals if it were offered to more people. A cap of fifty, however
Cheeti, Rhea. “Campus Groups Work to Combat off-Campus Students' Food Insecurity
with an Emergency Meal Program.” The Michigan Daily, The Michigan Daily, 7 Mar.
2017, 8:41pm.https://www.michigandaily.com/section/student-government/central-
student-government-starts-emergency-meal-program-address-food
The emergency meal fund is another program on campus that is working to help
mitigate the issue of student food insecurity on campus. The meal program gives students
who are worried about food insecurity the ability to request six meals during the
semester. The hope is that having access to food ensures a student’s academic
performance is not deteriorating due to lack of food. While the program only solves
problems short term, it is a good start to resolving the issue of food insecurity, which
Our nonprofit is a good next step in tackling the issue of student food insecurity.
Since it is difficult to seek out students who have food insecurity, providing the
opportunity to all students on campus to get free leftover dining hall meals is currently
the best possible way to reach as many students who are food insecure. Furthermore, the
program we are trying to set in place is a more sustainable solution to the problem on
campus.
Dubick, James, et al. “Hunger on Campus The Challenge of Food Insecurity for College
Students.” Hunger On Campus: The Challenge of Food Insecurity for College Students,
content/uploads/2016/10/Hunger_On_Campus.pdf
The study shows that 48% of respondents (college students) reported food
insecurity in the last 30 days, 22% of whom have very low levels of food security which
qualifies them as hungry. 32% of those who reported food insecurity believe that hunger
or housing issues have impacted their educations (missing a class, dropping a class, etc).
Additionally, students who are employed, have a meal plan or seek other financial or
Although these statistics are not specific to the University of Michigan, they still
prove that food insecurity is a serious issue for many college students that must be
addressed.
Dubick, James, et al. “Hunger on Campus The Challenge of Food Insecurity for College
Students.” Hunger On Campus: The Challenge of Food Insecurity for College Students,
Oct. 2016.
The source has several recommendations that are typical of a student food
improving access to benefits, and a unique one which struck my attention. It was a
system for dining center meal donations, where unused premiums on students meal plans,
in Michigan's case, Guest meals and Dining Dollars, can be donated to others that may be
in need, which could be incorporated in our nonprofit project. The research shows that
even a little participation from students in these programs can have a major impact on
social health and academic performance. Also, reducing the social stigma of receiving
free and reduced meals allows for students to be more comfortable in participating to
estimate how many students actually have a dining hall plan, and estimate how much
each plan costs the University. In Fall 2018, there were 5,681 freshman-standing
students. Since almost all are, let’s assume they are required to have a Meal plan, which
costs at least $2265. This computes to a total cost of $12,867,465 for freshmen students
during the term. In the winter, there are 2,659 full-time students, coming out to a cost of
$6,022,635. Since other classes (about 26,000 students) are not required to purchase a
dining hall plan, we will have to estimate the proportion of them that purchase a dining
hall plan. For a safe estimate, let’s say that 3,500 non-freshmen purchase an unlimited
dining-hall plan per term, and an additional 1,500 purchase a block meal plan (750 – 55
Block, 500 – 80 Block, 250 – 125 Block. This comes out to a total cost of $9,117,500 per
term. Total cost for all students, then, comes out to $37,125,100. Now, compare this to
the University’s increase in net position in 2017, $1.3 billion. It is clear that the university
can provide one, $7 meal per day for students that cannot afford to purchase a meal plan
themselves. For the ~220 days that the Dining Halls are open, if 1,000 students utilized
our proposed solution, the total cost to the University (including labor, food costs,
Goldberg, Eleanor. “Why Restaurants Officially Have No Excuse Not To Donate Their
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/restaurants-that-dont-donate-because-of-liability-
are-just-making-excuses-experts-say_us_577d6f92e4b0344d514dd20f
According to the article, there is no public record of anyone in the U.S. being sued
or having to pay damages because of harms related to food. This is thanks to the Bill
Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, which was passed in 1996. The act
protects restaurants from civil and criminal liability should a recipient get ill or hurt as a
The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act can help protect our
nonprofit when donating dining hall food. While it will still be important to follow health
codes, the act can help prevent potential increases in cost of the nonprofit. While the
source may be a little biased, since it heavily supports restaurant food donations, it is still
provides reliable information about the law. The goal of the source is to convince more
people and restaurants to donate leftover food, which is what out nonprofit is also
Government Accountability Office, US. “Better Information Could Help Eligible College
Students Access Federal Food Assistance Benefits.” Food Insecurity, Dec. 2018.
The main point of the source that I am focusing on is the recommendation for
students to be more aware of and have an easier time registering for SNAP (Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program). This program helps those who have food insecurity find
who wrote the journal, outlined the reasons for the necessity of students accessibility. It
says that of the students who have food insecurity, most have the ability to supplement
their needs with local benefits and programs. College towns and the colleges themselves
typically have programs that can be in contact with SNAPS to provide for those in need.
Hawtof, Zoe. “Fighting Food Insecurity On Campus.” Beyond the Diag - Off Campus
https://offcampus.umich.edu/article/fighting-food-insecurity-campus
As of 2015, the two organizations working to fight food insecurity on campus are
Student Food Co and Maize & Blue Cupboard. Student Food Co sells inexpensive,
healthy produce to students twice a week at Mason Hall. Maize & Blue Cupboard
While both organizations have the right intentions, the small scale and lack of
frequency in events have not been able to resolve the entire issue of food insecurity on
campus. A nonprofit like ours can help further enable change and effectively reduce the
number of food insecure students on campus by incorporating all dining halls (expanding
the scale) and increasing the frequency of distributions, thus making food more easily
accessible to food insecure students on campus. The large scale of our project will also
help improve its publicity, reaching, informing, and assisting more students on campus
Nouhan, Catherine. “Students Call University to Action over Food Insecurity on Campus.” The
university-action-over-food-insecurity-campus.
While there exist solutions to the food insecurity experienced on campus, they are
not offered often – about once a month for Maize and Blue Pantry, a service offering free
groceries for University of Michigan students. Students experience food insecurity for a
number of reasons. Many don’t have easy access to transportation to get to affordable
grocery stores, have financial insecurity, or simply want to save money. For students that
live off campus, this problem is even harder to deal with. Since they have to make their
own food, it is necessary for them to travel to get food. Without access to transportation,
meal plan from the University, but they sometimes too expensive for students to justify.
campus-and-apartment-residents/.
BLOCK BLOCK
Number
Cost for
Meal Plan $690 - $1150 - $1390 - $2290 - $25 $2440 - $200 $2540 - $300
Estimated
Meal 1
After computing the estimated cost per meal (1), we see that the unlimited plans
offer the “best deal” for students at ~$6.90 per meal. However, this is an extremely
generous estimate. Students, to achieve this deal, would be eating in the Dining hall 3
1: Based on the estimation of 109 days per term (Fall 2018) and 3 meals a day per
sustainability.umich.edu/environ211/food-recovery-network.
http://sustainability.umich.edu/environ211/food-recovery-network
leftover food from university dining halls and other food sources and donating that food.
What the nonprofit would aim to do is not to discourage the FRN, but work with them to
provide the food specifically to students instead of donating it away to parties outside of
the university. Based on our research, we developed four recommendations: build trust
via inclusion in the organization, develop a communication strategy to fit the primary
volunteering demographic (university students), match the volunteer tasks to the skill set
campuses.
solutions to the problem of security are outlined. Examples include Lesley University in
Boston, which operates a food pantry for all commuting students, which has successful
provides snacks and meals for over 250 students daily(only a school of ~2,100). Another
experiencing food insecurity. Another solution is called guest swiping, where students
can donate meal swipes to other students who need them. Universities that have this
include Emory University, Washington University at St. Louis, and Carlton University.
These initiatives’ success is hard to measure. One thing for sure, however, is that
many students benefit from them. A specific recommendation by the report is diverting a
small portion of food from dining halls to be used for meals for those experiencing food
finance.umich.edu/reports/2017/.
2018.annualreport.umich.edu/financial-statements/.
The University of Michigan does not provide details on overhead costs of dining
services. However, we can use provided details to make inferences about the costs of
costs of student services (which includes Dining Hall costs and labor) and the
University’s increase in net position. The first figure, costs of student services, is the
lowest of the consolidated operating expenses states at about $112 million. This is a small
amount compared to, for example, how much the university spends on research – about
$800 million. Now, our solution would not cost nearly as much as $112 million.
However, even if we were to have a budget that large, the University would be able to
afford it. UofM’s net position (money they have invested) increased by almost $1.3
billion in 2017 and increased by almost $1 billion in 2018 to a total of $14.2 billion.