School of Sustainability Graduate Culminating Experiences
Student capstone and applied projects from ASU's School of Sustainability.
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- All Subjects: Cooperative Business
Description
Food insecurity among university students in the U.S. is a pressing sustainability problem due to its prevalence, complex socio-economic drivers, and adverse effects. A national survey from the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice found that 45% of university students (n=86,000) had experienced some form of food insecurity in the past 30 days (Goldrick-Rab et al., 2019). Students at Arizona State University (ASU) are similarly impacted by this sustainability problem—a recent study found that approximately 35% of ASU students have experienced food insecurity (Bruening et al., 2016). Food insecurity has a variety of detrimental effects on university students’ physical health, psychological well-being, and academic achievement (El Zien et al., 2019; Payne-Sturges et al., 2018; Meza et al., 2019), and these resulting issues have complex inter-regional, intrageneration, and intergenerational implications.
To mitigate food insecurity among university students, the project proposes the development of a sustainable, student-run food cooperative business at Arizona State University (ASU). Food cooperative businesses have long been utilized by communities to advance food access, economic self-determination, and food justice (DePasquale, Sarang, & Vena, 2017), so the project aims to lay the foundation for the establishment of such an enterprise at ASU. Through the development of an enterprise start-up plan and the execution of preliminary coalition-building efforts, the project seeks to demonstrate the plausibility of this solution while empowering stakeholders with the strategies needed to enact it.
To mitigate food insecurity among university students, the project proposes the development of a sustainable, student-run food cooperative business at Arizona State University (ASU). Food cooperative businesses have long been utilized by communities to advance food access, economic self-determination, and food justice (DePasquale, Sarang, & Vena, 2017), so the project aims to lay the foundation for the establishment of such an enterprise at ASU. Through the development of an enterprise start-up plan and the execution of preliminary coalition-building efforts, the project seeks to demonstrate the plausibility of this solution while empowering stakeholders with the strategies needed to enact it.
Created2021-04-28
Description
Arizona State University had established a set of institutional sustainability goals of which Circular Resources or zero waste was one. The university currently has an established department and subsequent programs and initiatives to drive success towards university wide zero waste, however there was still opportunity for growth to help the university achieve the goal. This paper examines the process taken to assess organizational conditions used to justify the implementation of a new engagement strategy to advance the Circular Resources/Zero Waste goal. Readers should walk away with an understanding of how to translate this same process into other organizational structures.
ContributorsSchumacher, Katie (Writer of accompanying material)
Created2020-05-13