Download - Ram Pantry Final
RamPantry: External Communication
Kristina HipolitoMaya WilkinsKelli NoeskaAbby Mueller
Shawn Meredith
Introduction
Research Question: How can local businesses join RamPantry’s mission of increasing awareness of food insecurity?
MethodsSurvey: To measure awareness of food insecurity and what Richmond and VCU’s role should be in addressing it
Interview: To gauge local businesses knowledge of food insecurity and the willingness to be involved with RamPantry’s mission
Content Analysis: To explore the conversation in the media about food insecurity
Survey● Survey Questions● Target Audience
○ local business owners & students at Virginia Commonwealth University
● Response Rate○ 30 responses collected between Tuesday,
November 10th-Thursday, November 19th
Our Findings
Results● Majority know what food insecurity is● Local Richmond businesses should take part in VCU
programs● More people are willing to get involved if local
businesses are involved● The majority believe that Richmond as a whole should
help to raise awareness on food insecurity
InterviewsThe Urban Farmhouse Market & Harrison Street Cafe
● We met with two separate representatives from local businesses that are on and around the VCU campus on Thursday, November 19 and Monday, November 23
● Overall, the interview questions focused on whether the restaurant owners were familiar with the term “food insecurity” and whether they have personally experienced or know someone who has experienced it.
● The questions also focused on their level of interest and participation with RamPantry.
Interview Cont.What is Food Insecurity?
Interviewee one’s response (Harrison St.):
“Just being able to eat safely and food that isn’t going to cause illness. I’m assuming. I’ve never heard that term before.”
Interviewee two’s response (UFM):
“Food insecurity, as far as we view it, are people who don’t have steady access to food they need to survive.”
Interview Cont.Motivation to be involved with RamPantry
Interviewee one’s response (Harrison St.):
“I don’t know. That’s something I would have to think about if the offer came.”
Interviewee two’s response (UFM):
“Particularly for us we just opened our newest location right by the VCU campus and we’re working hard to become a part of the VCU community and this would be a great outreach program for us to get involved with in that area.”
Content Analysis
● Focusing on a total of 4,052 articles, we sampled 36● With specific searches involving food insecurity, using
Excel we coded these articles based on Events Mentioned, Business Type and Partnership Mentioned
Code Book
Recommendations-From our findings:
- We found that almost everyone we met and spoke with agrees that local Richmond businesses should be involved with raising awareness and treating food insecurity.
-Therefore we believe this is the time for Ram Pantry to continue reaching out, and getting their message out there.
-We found that is most important that Ram Pantry -- can get one or two local businesses/restaurants to be involved, then hoping to trigger others in our area to join Ram Pantry as well.
Recommendations Continued-Again we highly recommend that it would be to Ram Pantry’s best interest to reach out to one specific local business and get them on board.
- Our team recommends reaching out to Urban Farmhouse. We believe that they would be a great help to Ram Pantry, and almost act as a leader in the external organizations.
-Overall, based on all our research and findings, we believe that Ram Pantry’s external outreach is very important, and now is the time to get just one local business part of their team, and from there it can increase the Richmond area’s involvement.