S “Savor and Succeed”: Development and Implementation of a Food Security Campaign on Social Media

Food insecurity is a rising concern in many parts of the world. In the United States, certain populations are more vulnerable than others. One such group is college students. A 2020 report suggests roughly 39% of the 330,000 students surveyed from different colleges and universities experienced food insecurity in the last 30 days (Baker-Smith et al., 2020). Negative outcomes, such as behavioral and mental health issues, decreased academic performance in the form of lower grade point average, and general self-reporting of poor health, have been described by students suffering from food insecurity (Bruening et al., 2017; Hagedorn et al., 2019; McArthur et al., 2018; Phillips et al., 2018). From the family and consumer sciences (FCS) perspective, it is of paramount importance to support healthier communities by enhancing individual and family well-being, leading to optimal quality of life (Anderson & Nickols, 2001). Given the negative consequences of food insecurity among college students, it is important to raise awareness about its prevalence and connect students to available resources in their regional areas, particularly in their own university settings.

Zubaida Qamar, PhD, RD (qz@SFSU.edu) is Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics at San Francisco State University in San Francisco, CA; Tina Nguyen, RD, is a Community Nutrition Educator for Apicha’s Nutrition Health Education Program, in New York, NY; Margaret Taylor, RD, CNSC is a registered dietitian at Stanford Healthcare in Palo Alto, CA. Tina Nguyen and Margaret Taylor are graduates of the Nutrition and Dietetics program at San Francisco State University. This sub-project was funded by the SF BUILD (Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity) SF Build/NIH grant in collaboration with University of California, San Francisco. Special thanks to Dr. Hilary Seligman from University of California, San Francisco, for her guidance, students involved in this project, and partners from San Francisco State University (specifically Health Promotion and Wellness Center, Campus Dining Services, and the Student Nutrition and Dietetics Association).

Given the geographic settings of different universities and colleges, solutions are dependent on the nature of the institutions. For urban campuses that have a high percentage of commuter students, there is a lower sense of community among students because they are “on the go” and spend less time on campus, leading to less interaction with each other. To mitigate this, college students may utilize additional strategies such as connecting with individuals in their geographic areas or forming connections through campus clubs and programs of study (Vouchilas & Ulasewicz, 2020).

Additionally, urban settings with a high cost of living add to the growing challenges of food insecurity among students. Hence it is of paramount importance to not only reach the students where they are but also to educate them on the availability and utilization of resources provided by the university.

Campaign Development

Students may not be aware of resources available at their institutions, and those who are aware may not access them due to stigma associated with utilizing these resources (U. S. Government Accountability Office, 2019). Therefore innovative solutions and strategies to tackle food insecurity are necessary to enhance food access and shift patterns toward healthy eating in adult populations (U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2020). These efforts include comprehensive awareness approaches such as presence on social media and campus-wide campaigns. To the authors’ knowledge, no such social media campaign has been developed to increase awareness of food insecurity and food resources for college students. To address this gap in awareness, the “Savor and Succeed” food security campaign was developed. The aims of this campaign were to (a) increase awareness of the prevalence of food insecurity among students through enhanced reach utilizing social media, and (2) promote available food resources on campus to students. The Family and Consumer Sciences Body of Knowledge core concepts of Basic Human Needs and Individual Well-being, along with the cross-cutting theme of Appropriate Use of Technology, were incorporated into this project.

Social media usage has increased in the younger populations and has had both positive and negative effects (Schmitt, 2021). Tapping into the positive attributes of social media, such as wide reach to diverse populations and improved health communications and well-being, the authors used social media to reach the target audience. Instagram, in particular, is one of the most widely used platforms. Roughly 71% of people aged 18–29 years use Instagram, which is the age range targeted for this campaign (Pew Center Research, 2021). In order to reach a commuter student population in urban settings who do not spend a lot of time on campus, targeted messages need to be developed and delivered where they spend time on social media. The content for the campaign consisted of supportive and informative messages with relevant visuals formatted both in “story” and “post” formats on Instagram, supplemented by on-campus field efforts. This content was pilot tested and revised three times with eight individuals (students and staff), and changes were made to the messages and visuals based upon the feedback. These changes included refining visuals and wording and providing specific data regarding food insecurity among college students in the region. The 5-week campaign with respective themes is presented in Table 1.

To optimize campaign success, it was also essential for the campaign to have a name that resonated with the students. Based on student feedback, “Savor and Succeed” was finalized with the idea being to “savor” available food and to “succeed” academically and personally. The content for the social media posts, brochures, flyers, and handouts was created utilizing the graphic design platform, Canva (https://www.canva.com/). Images included photography by the team on various campus locations as well as free stock photos and content acquired from Pexels.com and Unsplash.com. Some content for Instagram consisted of capturing the field efforts such as distribution of flyers and brochures to guide students to the food resources and campaign, and live recording of relevant food security events occurring on campus. Tabling, which involved distributing informative materials and providing education, was implemented onsite

Table 1. Weekly Content for the Campaign

Timeline

TopiC of The week

Week 1 Information on general food insecurity

Week 2 Food insecurity on campus

Post 1: Overall statistics on students not having access to food

Post 2: Impact of food insecurity on students

Post 3: Should I buy the textbook or groceries?

Post 1: Specific statistics on food insecurity on our campus

Post 2: GPA comparison of food secure vs. food insecure students

Post 3: Students skipping meals

Theme: You are not alone

Week 3 Promotion of food resources (Part 1)

Post 1: Information on SNAP/Food stamps Help Clinic

Post 2: Information on mobile food alert

Post 3: Information on farmer’s market on campus

Theme: There is help available

Week 4 Promotion of remaining food resources (Part 2)

Week 5 How to support efforts on improving food security and get involved

Post 1: Information on free cooking classes

Post 2: Information on food pantry on campus

Post 3: Information on free meal cards

Theme: Nudge towards awareness and utilization of these resources

Theme: Nudge towards awareness and utilization of these resources

Post 1: Reduce food waste to promote food security Theme: Prompt to take an action

Post 2: Information on volunteering at SNAP/Food Stamps Help Clinic

Post 3: Information on volunteering at food pantry on campus at peak traffic times. The data presented here are from Instagram data analytics that are being used to determine the campaign’s ability to achieve effective audience reach and engagement. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of San Francisco State University.

University campuses provide a unique environment to leverage existing strategies around health promotion. A collaborative approach with the health and wellness centers on campus can be beneficial. To enhance the campaign’s reach and promote shared food security values, partnerships were established with the Health Promotion and Wellness Center (HPW) and the Dining Services on campus; this allowed the campaign to release digital content to be promoted on partners’ social media accounts. The partnerships also allowed the researchers to leverage their relatively larger social media following. Additionally, to have a designated official space for content to supplement reach and engagement, a public Instagram account for the campaign, @savorandsucceed, was created.

The student Nutrition and Dietetics organization also was involved as a side partner. Additional recruitment of participants happened through word of mouth, asking partner accounts to promote the main Instagram account, chalking promotional messages on campus, and handing out flyers through tabling. It was crucial to have the messages and content shared on other university organizations’ accounts that had a larger Instagram following.

Elements of a socio-ecological framework were incorporated into the design and implementation of the campaign. This framework aims to elucidate the interactions among various levels of society in regards to a particular health issue (Stokols, 1992). On an intrapersonal level, content was meant to improve student’s knowledge and attitudes toward using food resources on campus. On an interpersonal level, the content was designed to reduce social stigma, which may prevent students from seeking the help they need. On a community level, the partners of the campaign and their respective efforts on securing basic needs were deemed significant to the success of the campaign.

Campaign implementation

The campaign was launched in October and November of 2019. Developed content was shared 3 days per week. (See Table 1). Based on activity data of followers, noon (12:00 p.m.) was one of the most active times for users and hence, a majority of the pre-developed content was posted around that time. An example of a post is presented in Figure 1. To supplement the posts, real time content, such as coverage of certain basic needs and food events or tabling on campus, was captured live.

The online content was supplemented by efforts on the field. Permission was obtained to do tabling in certain areas on campus. Chalking was allowed on certain areas of foot paths so different color chalks were utilized to promote the message and encourage students to go online for further information. The chalked messages were captured live and presented on the campaign Instagram account. Additional activities were used to enhanced the online presence, such as demonstrating via video recording on how to access food from the food pantry on campus and saving it as an Instagram story accessible on demand. In the video, a student representative showed viewers the complete process of accessing the food pantry from beginning to end and demonstrated which categories and types of food items are eligible to be picked up for that day.

Findings

Analyses with instagram Analytic Tools

Based on the demographic data of the campaign account, 75% of followers were female and were from the local area, with a majority of followers aged 18–24 years, corresponding to the target audience demographics. The content (n = 21 posts) was developed and shared on the main account, some of which also was shared by HPW, a campus partner. Engagement analytics through post insights showed data on reach, profile, and website visits, and impressions for each post. The content shared by the partner account generated more than 8,000 views, with a reach of more than 12,800 and 17,516 impressions. The content was shared 49 times in various manners. The social media engagement data also provided information on following or unfollowing after certain content was posted. Additionally, feedback was garnered from followers regarding viewing the chalked messages through the polling feature on Instagram.

Discussion

implications and lessons learned Based on the results, the campaign was able to reach the intended target audience of college students, and it allowed for engagement with the content. The food resources were promoted and information was provided on how to access these resources. This ties in with data from the Pew Center that suggests that a majority of U.S. adults utilize social media to engage with news content, intertact with one another, and share information; in particular, half of U.S. adults use social media to get digital news (Pew Research Center, 2022). Additionally, students were nudged to take action to alleviate food insecurity, and information was provided on how students can get involved in supporting these efforts.

Creating

When launching a social media campaign, content creation is an important element. Though the campaign was implemented predominantly online, there was a considerable amount of in-person work involved in building an effective online campaign because some story content had to be created live, at specific times, on campus, and usually required staff to be present onsite. Also, in order to table on campus, permission was needed and it was only allowed in designated areas. Creating an account from scratch proved to be tedious work that required constant monitoring, management, successful networking, and collaborative effort. Recommendation for others looking to implement their campaigns would be to establish partnerships with campus organizations that have established an audience of followers to improve social media reach. Additionally, with a public social media account, the direct messages need to be filtered for inappropriate content or spam. Furthermore, in order to have a successful account and build a following, engaging new content needs to be posted periodically.

A vast amount of data can be retrieved from the social media account, which can be used for evaluation or recruitment purposes. To enhance reach, various relevant hashtags need to be utilized along with traditional recruitment methods of tabling and handing out flyers. The hashtag #savorandsucceed was included in all posts to allow for tracking engagement and reach. Another recommendation is to show support for related food security efforts on campus; this allows buy-in and trust from audiences and provides relevant content for the account while advocating a similar message. For example, in celebration of World Kindness Day in November, Campus Dining hosts a philanthropic event involving making hundreds of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to be donated to unhoused individuals and partnering food banks. During this event, the author assisted in making sandwiches to support the cause. This experience was captured on the main Instagram account with tags to the dining center account. Creativity and engaging content is generally expected within the realm of social media. The campaign can be adapted to reach students who have less accessibilty to in-person events but who do have access to technology and a high social media usage.

Limitations

Limitations of this project were related to the unique characteristics of the target audience—mostly commuter students in an urban campus—and the timing of on-campus activities to be captured by the account. Students who are not users of social media, particularly Instagram, could not access the online content and should be reached in alternative ways. Additionally, some on-campus activities happened at certain times which may not have been captured due to schedule conflicts. As such, not all relevant activities could be digitally promoted. In addition, useful activities that were captured may be inaccessible in the moment because students may be in classes or not on campus during activity times. Furthermore, dedicated staff would be needed to continue the account beyond the campaign period. Surveys and focus groups should be conducted to strengthen and guide future large scale interventions on food security.

Conclusion

The food security campaign on social media can raise awareness and increase exposure to the prevalence of food insecurity in college settings and promote available resources in conjunction with traditional, in-person methods. This campaign can be adapted by FCS professionals working with hard-to-reach populations experiencing food insecurity and who have high social media usage. The results have implications for developing large scale intervention studies to understand the effectiveness of social media platforms for nutrition education and awareness in connection with behavior change.

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