The University as a Site of Food Insecurity: evaluating the foolscap of Texas A&M University's main campus
Keywords:
Food desert, food insecurity, college students, universityAbstract
This paper evaluates the foodscape of Texas A&M University's main campus in an effort to understand rates of food security as linked to food access at a tier one University. To do this, we employ two methodological approaches. An ArcGIS analysis documents the physical attributes associated with the foodscape, including food nutritional content and affordability at on-campus food retail locations. Further, to understand the foodscape from a socio-cultural perspective, we use a qualitative survey to assess food security rates and perceptions of food access among undergraduate students. Our findings conclude that Texas A&M University undergraduate students experience degrees of food insecurity during the semester at rates of up to two and a half times the Texas average. We situate this finding within our geo-spatial analysis, which underscores that segments of campus lack access to affordable, fresh or healthy food.
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