Marketing to Food Insecure College Students: An Investigation into the University of Mississippi’s Food Pantry

Author

Dandridge ParksFollow

Date of Award

Spring 4-30-2021

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Marketing

First Advisor

Melissa Cinelli

Second Advisor

Anne Cafer

Third Advisor

Catarina Passidomo

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

College students are documented to suffer food insecurity at a high rate, and student-run food pantries have aimed to alleviate some of this burden. However, these pantries operate inefficiently and struggle to adequately meet student needs. In particular, many students are unaware of the pantry or have barriers to use. Research has found that only 14% of food insecure college students use their campus food pantries. The objective of the following work is to improve future marketing for campus run food pantries, with a specific focus on the University of Mississippi’s pantry.

In the last year, the University of Mississippi’s food pantry, now known as Grove Grocery, has undergone a period of growth and change. New services have been added, the leadership team has been expanded, and the pantry has fully rebranded. However, awareness of the pantry remains low. After spending a year as the pantry’s marketing director, it was clear that our marketing efforts were uninformed and ineffective.

In order to gain additional insights, a cross-sectional survey was sent to Fall 2020 University of Mississippi students to collect data on food insecurity levels, demographics, awareness of the food pantry, and other relevant information. Confirming our expectations, the survey found 41.4% of the respondents food insecure, most students unaware of the pantry, and significant barriers to use, many of which could be addressed through marketing.

The results of the survey were analyzed and used to create managerial recommendations about how to optimize marketing in the coming years. This plan contains general recommendations about advertisement content and a detailed outline of steps to take to raise awareness. Ideally, future marketing directors from Grove Grocery and other campus food pantries will be able to use these recommendations and the insights from the survey to help reduce campus food insecurity.

Recommended Citation

Parks, Dandridge, "Marketing to Food Insecure College Students: An Investigation into the University of Mississippi’s Food Pantry" (2021). Honors Theses. 1881.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/1881

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.