ES 382 Final Group Project:Increasing Consumer Purchasing Awareness at UVic

Elliot Adams-Fortune,Charlotte Helston,

Laura-Leigh McKenzie,Sydney Hodgson,

Tiere Boyes, &Brianne Fester

What is Food Security?Most up to date definition of food security:

“Food security [is] a situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient,

safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” (FAO, 2002)

• Canada’s food security and food related social programs.• Most Canadian’s have access to food, but there are areas where healthy food and locally sourced food is scarce, this is a form of food insecurity.

What Does This Mean for UVic?• We live on and island which sets us apart from the majority of the world’s population• 90% of our food comes from off-island sources. If all ferries/air traffic were cut off, we would run out of food at the supermarkets in 3 days!!!• 50 years ago island farmers grew 85% of the island’s food• at Uvic students have the opportunity to lead the food security movement•Energy crisis…What about a Food crisis?!

Raising awareness about local food on campus… – Why is this important?– What can be done about it?

- Is marketing local food on campus important?- How do we effectively market local food on

campus ?

Methodology• Survey:– Surveyed students in different locations across

campus to obtain a broad, representative sample of the student body

– Surveyed 97 undergrads, 5 grads

• Posters for UVic food outlets:– Obtained support from Uvic Food Services and

Campus Planning & Sustainability– Applied to UVSP for grant to have posters printed– Working with visual arts student to create posters

Survey Findings– 45% of participants more likely to buy food on

campus if they knew it was organic and/or locally sourced

– 48% of participants willing to pay more for local food on campus • 15% willing to pay $1.00 more for local!

– 79% of participants think it’s important to have local food on campus

– 78% of participants would like to see more local food served on campus

How much local food participants thought was currently being served on campus:

• Local Food Days: Feature farmers, games, trivia, prizes, free samples

• Labeling: Includes farm where product was produced (when applicable), and food miles!

“Good Food Day”

Food purchased in season and within 500 km of Montreal.

Recommendations

-Local food Labeling-More permanent postering-More information on website-Local menu options-Harvest week menu options-“Feast of Fields” event-weekly/daily local food specials-Daily local drink specials-Table advertisements-Fast facts

How can UVic raise consumer purchasing awareness & facilitate more “Farm to Fork”?