Learning Outcome 3
Integrate scientific, psychological, social and economic aspects of the environment and examine how they individually and collectively affect food and nutrition, a healthy lifestyle, pleasurable eating, and food policy in diverse and urban population groups.
Artifacts:
Artifact 1 – Cohort XII Business Plan – On-Campus Food Pantry
Reflection:
At the beginning of the Coordinated Program (CP), my entire cohort was given the task of developing and presenting a business plan for a student run food pantry on campus. Because I never thought I’d apply business concepts to my nutrition-related studies, I was surprised to be given a project like this. I did my best to keep a positive attitude, but I found it overwhelming to work on a project with such a large group. On the day the business plan assignment was given to us, we needed to sign up for three committees, composed of smaller groups of students that would focus on specific aspects of the plan to make the project more manageable. I ended up being one of the last people to sign-up. As a result, I filled in the remaining blanks for the marketing analysis, marketing plan and financial committees. I was a little disappointed that I would be focusing so much on marketing for this project as it was the career I was trying to get away from.
To determine if there was a need for a food pantry on campus, the first task we needed to accomplish to get our business plan rolling was to create a needs assessment survey. This job was part of the marketing analysis group’s responsibility, which I was a member of. Before I was accepted into the CP program, I worked in the advertising industry. During my time in advertising, I developed many surveys for a multitude of clients. This experience allowed me to play a key role in the development of the survey questions for the food pantry. Additionally, being familiar with graphic design, I created a flyer with a link to our survey that the members of my cohort distributed on campus. Armed with iPads, the marketing analysis committee spread out around campus and asked students to take our survey. We ended up surveying 635 undergraduate and graduate students. Upon analyzing the data we collected, we concluded that there was a statistically significant need for a food pantry on campus with a 95% confidence.
The World Health Organization defines food security as the following: “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life.” This concept expands beyond an individual merely having access to food. It also depends on them having the resources to regularly access food that is safe and nutritious. It saddened me to learn that food insecurity was a large problem for the Georgia State University (GSU) student body. I was very proud that my cohort was able to survey such a large sample of the GSU population and determine a need for a food panty.
With the data from the survey, I worked with the marketing plan team to determine our target audience. It took quite a bit of time to work through all of the data and pull out demographic information and key information that pertained to our target such as the number of days a week students went hungry and what location for the pantry was preferred. It was startling to see that over a third of the students we surveyed reported being food insecure. After analyzing the data, we decided that there were really three target audiences: a primary audience that consisted of GSU students that were food insecure, a secondary audience that was made up of the GSU community: students, faculty, and employees and a third audience that consisted of outside sources, corporations that could support the pantry through donating time, food or money. After establishing each audience, we began to brainstorm ideas for different marketing tactics that would support our overall strategy of increasing the pantry’s visibility in the GSU community. Keeping our overall goal in mind of soliciting donations, finding volunteers to staff the facility, and delivering the message to students in need.
I also assisted with the development of the food pantry’s financial plan. This committee determined all of the hypothetical costs that the food pantry would encounter once it was up and running. Estimating costs proved difficult because after exploring multiple possibilities, we had not been able to identify an on-campus location for the food pantry. We did our best to estimate costs for a variety of scenarios and made sure to include start-up costs in the plan. Despite our best efforts, the financial plan received the most constructive criticism at our initial business plan presentation. There were several costs that our team overlooked. We added additional costs into the plan and made sure this section was well thought out for our final presentation.
Moreover, before the final presentation, our team had to consider how the addition of a food pantry would impact GSU, particularly the administrative staff. It was important to gain their support in order to be successful. We determined that the school would benefit from lower income students having better access to food, which would allow them to be more focused on their studies and stay more alert in the classroom.
The final presentation was given to the Vice President of Student Affairs and the Associate Vice President and Dean of Students at the University. Both were equally impressed with our hard work and dedication to the pantry. Though I was not one of the presenters, I was proud of the cohort and thrilled with the success of our presentation.
I found it challenging to develop a business plan with nine other people. The members of my cohort each have differing views and work styles. However, I do believe this experience accurately reflected real world work situations. This project taught me the importance of listening to others and showed me how to work as a team to achieve a common goal. It also opened my eyes to an unfamiliar world of students that are food insecure – in some cases choosing schoolbooks over food. This further solidifies the need for a food pantry on campus, and I hope that Georgia State University takes the information included in our business plan and moves forward with it. Creating a food pantry on-campus would bring the entire experience full circle and would be an extremely rewarding experience for my cohort and me.
Artifacts:
Artifact 1 – Cohort XII Business Plan – On-Campus Food Pantry
Reflection:
At the beginning of the Coordinated Program (CP), my entire cohort was given the task of developing and presenting a business plan for a student run food pantry on campus. Because I never thought I’d apply business concepts to my nutrition-related studies, I was surprised to be given a project like this. I did my best to keep a positive attitude, but I found it overwhelming to work on a project with such a large group. On the day the business plan assignment was given to us, we needed to sign up for three committees, composed of smaller groups of students that would focus on specific aspects of the plan to make the project more manageable. I ended up being one of the last people to sign-up. As a result, I filled in the remaining blanks for the marketing analysis, marketing plan and financial committees. I was a little disappointed that I would be focusing so much on marketing for this project as it was the career I was trying to get away from.
To determine if there was a need for a food pantry on campus, the first task we needed to accomplish to get our business plan rolling was to create a needs assessment survey. This job was part of the marketing analysis group’s responsibility, which I was a member of. Before I was accepted into the CP program, I worked in the advertising industry. During my time in advertising, I developed many surveys for a multitude of clients. This experience allowed me to play a key role in the development of the survey questions for the food pantry. Additionally, being familiar with graphic design, I created a flyer with a link to our survey that the members of my cohort distributed on campus. Armed with iPads, the marketing analysis committee spread out around campus and asked students to take our survey. We ended up surveying 635 undergraduate and graduate students. Upon analyzing the data we collected, we concluded that there was a statistically significant need for a food pantry on campus with a 95% confidence.
The World Health Organization defines food security as the following: “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life.” This concept expands beyond an individual merely having access to food. It also depends on them having the resources to regularly access food that is safe and nutritious. It saddened me to learn that food insecurity was a large problem for the Georgia State University (GSU) student body. I was very proud that my cohort was able to survey such a large sample of the GSU population and determine a need for a food panty.
With the data from the survey, I worked with the marketing plan team to determine our target audience. It took quite a bit of time to work through all of the data and pull out demographic information and key information that pertained to our target such as the number of days a week students went hungry and what location for the pantry was preferred. It was startling to see that over a third of the students we surveyed reported being food insecure. After analyzing the data, we decided that there were really three target audiences: a primary audience that consisted of GSU students that were food insecure, a secondary audience that was made up of the GSU community: students, faculty, and employees and a third audience that consisted of outside sources, corporations that could support the pantry through donating time, food or money. After establishing each audience, we began to brainstorm ideas for different marketing tactics that would support our overall strategy of increasing the pantry’s visibility in the GSU community. Keeping our overall goal in mind of soliciting donations, finding volunteers to staff the facility, and delivering the message to students in need.
I also assisted with the development of the food pantry’s financial plan. This committee determined all of the hypothetical costs that the food pantry would encounter once it was up and running. Estimating costs proved difficult because after exploring multiple possibilities, we had not been able to identify an on-campus location for the food pantry. We did our best to estimate costs for a variety of scenarios and made sure to include start-up costs in the plan. Despite our best efforts, the financial plan received the most constructive criticism at our initial business plan presentation. There were several costs that our team overlooked. We added additional costs into the plan and made sure this section was well thought out for our final presentation.
Moreover, before the final presentation, our team had to consider how the addition of a food pantry would impact GSU, particularly the administrative staff. It was important to gain their support in order to be successful. We determined that the school would benefit from lower income students having better access to food, which would allow them to be more focused on their studies and stay more alert in the classroom.
The final presentation was given to the Vice President of Student Affairs and the Associate Vice President and Dean of Students at the University. Both were equally impressed with our hard work and dedication to the pantry. Though I was not one of the presenters, I was proud of the cohort and thrilled with the success of our presentation.
I found it challenging to develop a business plan with nine other people. The members of my cohort each have differing views and work styles. However, I do believe this experience accurately reflected real world work situations. This project taught me the importance of listening to others and showed me how to work as a team to achieve a common goal. It also opened my eyes to an unfamiliar world of students that are food insecure – in some cases choosing schoolbooks over food. This further solidifies the need for a food pantry on campus, and I hope that Georgia State University takes the information included in our business plan and moves forward with it. Creating a food pantry on-campus would bring the entire experience full circle and would be an extremely rewarding experience for my cohort and me.