Investigating Student Satisfaction of Food Security Services at Dalhousie University

Abstract

This paper aims to determine the level of satisfaction Dalhousie University students associate with free food security services on campus. With food prices and the rates of food insecurity increasing, it was important for us to monitor the amount of awareness towards and the use of food services on the Studley campus. The feedback and responses from students can be used to produce potential improvements to these services to ensure the long-term use of these services. The food security services we studied were the Dalhousie Student Union (DSU) Food Bank and the lunch program through Loaded Ladle because both services are free and open to the community. Our study population was specific to students that spend the majority of their time on the Studley campus. We conducted research through the delivery of an online survey composed of 8-14 questions about the student's relationship with Loaded Ladle and the DSU Food Bank. We recruited participants through email communication sent to professors and faculty members that distributed the survey to their students. In addition, we collected participants by displaying posters with a QR code across campus, over social media, and through the personal distribution performed by the Wild Bunch team to our peers, friends, and coworkers that fit within our target population. Our data was analyzed through pie and stacked bar charts, a coding tree, and two chi-square tests. Our findings suggest that the majority of students involved in our survey were aware of the services provided by Loaded Ladle and the DSU Food Bank. The Loaded Ladle received more awareness due to residing in a greater trafficked area by students. The null hypothesis was accepted for both the Loaded Ladle and DSU foodbank. Meaning that their performance does not deviate from neutral. Although, the DSU Food Bank is skewed to the negative, most likely due to strained resources. Nearly a quarter of students felt unsure about food security for students, suggesting lack of awareness of the issue. Our findings also show that living off campus without guardians are the students who use the food security services the most. As the cost of food rises, Dalhousie has the opportunity to step in alongside the DSU Food Bank and Loaded Ladle to support food insecure students through their own means. Our study was limited and wasn’t as robust as initially desired and has many data collection biases. We encourage our findings to be used to produce a second study that investigates more demographics of the Dalhousie University campuses.