Study results from anthropology student internship with Gleaners Community Food Bank

The Anthropology department partnered with Gleaners Community Food Bank to offer anthropology students a field internship. The two portions of the study helped Gleaners to understand the percentage of food is utilized by clients served through various Gleaners programs. This information helps Gleaners to calculate the Economic Benefit to households, which equals the % of food utilization x meals distributed x retail value of the meal. Having a more accurate understanding of food utilization in the households helps Gleaners to not only understand how clients use the food at home but also have the economic impact of the food provided as well.

"The project as whole was very important for two reasons. First, it allowed [Gleaners] to work directly with clients to understand how food is used in the home and the role that waste may play. Second, it allowed [Gleaners] to partner with WSU and give students the opportunity to gain first-hand experience with research and evaluation.

In the first portion undergraduate students, Cheyenne Boinais, Raveena Mata, Dina Charara, and Shaun McGuire assisted Shavonnea Brown, Evaluation Coordinator at Gleaners, in conducting focus groups. The purpose of these focus groups was to understand how clients define food waste, why food waste occurs in their households, and strategies to avoid food waste. In the second portion, undergraduate students Shariq Kamran, Carinna Dennis, and Dilnoor Bawa, helped Brown distribute surveys at both mobile and agency partner pantries to measure food usage and waste and what contributes to waste. They surveyed 10 mobile pantry sites and 9 traditional pantries and received 644 survey results. They discovered that at mobile pantry site clients reported using 85% of the food provided and visited only 5 times in the past 12 months, while traditional pantry site clients reported using 78% of the food provided and visited 13 times in the past 12 months. The top reason food was not utilized was the food was close to its expiration date. The second top reason food was not utilized was the client did not like the food they received. Other reasons food was wasted were; they had too many of the same food item, the food had already spoiled, dietary restrictions, food allergy, did not know how to prepare food item, and food storage issues. For more information of these findings, you can read this highlight.