A8 Team: Creating a sustainable and inclusive food ecosystem
MacChangers 2023-2024 - MacMunchers
Executive Summary
Group Members
Communities, Arts, and Culture: Team A8
Mission Statement
"Our mission is to collaboratively design and implement a sustainable and inclusive food ecosystem on campus, fostering an environment where every student has access to nutritious food, promoting food sovereignty, and cultivating a sense of belonging. Through innovative and community-driven solutions, our team is dedicated to addressing food insecurity head-on, striving to create lasting change that positively impacts the well-being and academic success of all students."
Description
On our campus, a pressing issue demands our attention and collective action: food insecurity among students. Many individuals within our academic community face challenges in accessing sufficient, nutritious food regularly. This not only jeopardizes their physical health but also hampers their ability to focus on their studies and engage fully in the campus experience. Additionally, the current food system may lack inclusivity and diversity, leaving certain groups underserved. Our goal is to address these disparities by building a sustainable food ecosystem that not only provides nourishment but also promotes food sovereignty, allowing students to have a say in the food choices available to them. Furthermore, we aim to create a welcoming environment where every student feels a sense of belonging, recognizing the vital role food plays in building a strong and connected campus community. Through our mission, we strive to transform our campus into a place where food security is a reality for all and where students feel empowered to shape their food experiences.
Summary of Key Findings
Our How Might We Question
How might we create a sustainable and inclusive food ecosystem on campus, to effectively address food insecurity, promote food sovereignty, and cultivate a sense of belonging among students?
Human Centred Design
Stakeholder Chart Part 1
Stakeholder Chart Part 2
Stakeholder Chart Part 3
Our Research Findings
SDG Alignment
SDG: 2-Zero Hunger
Targets:
Target 2.1: By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round. Indicators: Prevalence of undernourishment. Prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in the population, based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES).
Target: 2.c: Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on food reserves, in order to help limit extreme food price volatility. Indicator: Indicator of food price anomalies.
Rationale:
Target 2.1: This goal aligns with our project as it addresses the issue of food insecurity among people with lower incomes and international students on campus. A potential solution is to gather more donations to provide subsidized yet nutritious food year-round.
Target 2.c: This goal aligns with our project as it may be difficult to provide international cuisine at McMaster due to inflation, global warming, and other factors which may prevent international agricultural trade. A potential solution would be to ensure food prices stabilize or to set up grounds on campus/in Hamilton where international food may be grown.
SDG: 3-Good Health and Well-Being
Targets:
Target 3.4: By 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being
Indicator 3.4.1: Mortality rate attributed to cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes or chronic respiratory disease (relate to food insecurity and poor nutrition)
Target 3.8: Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all
Indicator 3.8.1: Coverage of essential health services
Rationale:
Target 3.4: This target addresses the high mortality rate linked to non-communicable diseases, often associated with poor nutrition and food insecurity. By focusing on reducing diet-related diseases, we aim to enhance overall health and well-being in the Hamilton community.
Target 3.8: Limited access to essential services, particularly for those affected by food insecurity, is a challenge we're hoping to address. Our goal is to improve access by emphasizing nutritional support programs, contributing to universal health coverage for the food-insecure population
SDG 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation
Targets:
Target 6.b - Support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management. Indicators include:
Indicator 6.b.1: Proportion of local administrative units with established and operational policies and procedures for participation of local communities in water and sanitation management
Target 6.1- By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all. Indicators include:
Indicator 6.1.1: Proportion of population using safely managed drinking water services.
Rationale:
Target 6.b - This goal aligns with our topic as its priority is to strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water management. This outlines the need for accessibility and inclusivity in water management, as various minority groups and communities may have different uses for food and water use which should be taken into consideration (ex. Indigenous perspectives).
Target 6.1 - This goal aligns with our topic, with its focus on providing universal and equitable access to safe drinking water. When considering food insecurities, we must also consider adequate water accessibility, and ensuring water filters and safe filtration is implemented and updated across campus are important to ensure
Case Studies and Findings
Our primary questions and research for our HMWQ.
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Revised Questions After Speaking to the Community
How our conversations with community members have changed our research questions! Swipe to see the change!
Our Timeline
Original How Might We Question
How might we create a sustainable and inclusive food ecosystem on campus, to effectively address food insecurity, promote food sovereignty, and cultivate a sense of belonging among students?
Brainstorming
This original question was too broad, and we wanted to find a single solution that could address food insecurity but also target and be accessible to a wide scope of students. We found infographics that stated that one of the issues, in the broad topic of food insecurity, is that many students do not know how to cook lower-priced meals. From this, we decided to narrow down our solution to helping students learn how to cook their meals and order lower-priced ingredients by employing an app.
Our Revised How Might We Question
How might we support McMaster students in overcoming food insecurity and promoting food sovereignty by implementing online cooking workshops to meet their dietary and cultural needs?
First Community Event Feedback + Next Steps
Feedback from Justin: think about implementing an app similar to the FlashFood app where people can purchase lower-priced food options from grocery stores, food and beverage establishments, etc. Think about how to sustain this idea through deals, partnerships, etc. Feedback from Sue: no one wants to be in a lineup for food and admit that they need food. There needs to be a way for people to purchase food but remain anonymous. Turn your idea into a game, build involvement (try to get groups of friends), and keep it local.
Final Community Event Feedback
Justin’s Feedback: Food insecurity can also be having money for food but buying McDonald's. The logistics: how to bring the food to the people, get that data from stores, able to claim/purchase food on the app so there is no waste of time/money and disappointment.
Maureen’s Feedback: Tags in our app to get a recipe with those ingredients. Generate recipe function with ingredients I have. Make a chat room where people can come together and each purchase one or two things so they all don't have to purchase every ingredient. Set up an ability for them to be able to book a kitchen space at McMaster.
Measuring Success
Below are our solution indicators used to measure the success of our project.
Our Solution Ideas
Our 2 solution ideas and prototypes!
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Equitable and Inclusive Considerations
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Project Viability
Final Solution
- Our solution is an app McMaster students are free to download.
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Our Pitch to Stakeholders
Our Experience with MacChangers
Use this section to talk about what you learned, your favorite parts, and what you found valuable from the experience! Tell stakeholders why this was so valuable to you and how you hope your solution can help.
