For three days this past weekend, a group of Xavier University students came together with one goal in mind: how to best tackle the challenge of food insecurity on campus — a top question posed as part of an inaugural “innovation challenge” that one professor said has rallied an overwhelming response.
Nearly 30 students, 18 staff members and five community leaders, including representatives from Last Mile Food Rescue, Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation and Cincinnati’s Freestore Foodbank, spent upward of 10 hours developing solutions to better serve students without consistent access to enough food.
Saurav Pathak, professor of management and entrepreneurial studies in the Williams College of Business, who helped co-organize the weekend with five other professors, part of Xavier University’s Center for Innovation task force, said it served as a case study for how individual colleges on campus can work together.
Innovation weekends typically bring together key public and private stakeholders to work with students to solve a significant societal issue. Food insecurity a pressing issue on college campuses nationwide, one exacerbated by Covid-19. Pathak said XU’s board of directors also identified it as a top priority.
Per campus surveys, around 2,000 Xavier students identify as food insecure, Pathak said. Of that number, a “tremendously low” amount, around 300, access an already available food pantry on campus.
The innovation weekend teams — which included students from all four colleges — narrowed the problem down to awareness, accessibility and stigma. Pathak said many students didn’t know the food pantry exists. “There’s not a single website or point for students to find information,” he said.
Solutions included a newsletter that could be distributed on freshman orientation day — calling for volunteers, not putting an emphasis on food insecurity — as well as a “home delivery” option where students could shop available items online.
The winning idea took a sustainable approach. Pathak said 14% of food from the Xavier cafeteria is wasted, and 0% is converted to compost.
Students proposed launching a campus-based student-run venture to fill that gap. The team, named “Food Heroes,” included Joseph Balducci, an entrepreneurship major in the College of Business; Nick Namyar, a graphic designer from the College of Arts and Sciences; and Zachary Kane, who is studying health service administration in the College of Population Health.
“The cafeteria manager (was) extremely excited about the idea of food waste from the cafeteria being distributed to wherever needed in Cincinnati,” Pathak said. “Some students who witnessed the (innovation weekend) event are energized to see this happen on campus. They are the torch bearers of future endeavors.”
Pathak said the innovation weekend a great launching point. Xavier’s Center for Innovation, which recently experienced a reboot, operates at the university level, meaning it doesn’t belong to any singular department. The innovation challenge was also a way to highlight its mission and bring the campus together.
The idea is to repeat the event twice a year — likely in the fall and spring. He said there’s a host of possible topics, ranging from wellness to climate change.
“There was overwhelming exuberance, and now overwhelming support,” he said. “More and more faculty have been made aware and have committed time when we offer this again. And the excitement the students showed is something that they carry home. They can forever say that they participated in something that had a little bit of something to do with adding value to the community.”
