Impactful Course Activities and Assignments and Suggested Improvements to Food Security-Focused Collegiate Curriculum

Background Providing comprehensive food insecurity education and training in higher education is critical for preparing nutrition, public health, and social work students to address this issue in their future careers. Not much is known about course activities that aim to prepare students to screen, monitor, and intervene upon food insecurity in their future careers. Objective To describe impactful food security-related course activities and to synthesize student suggestions to improve the training of future nutrition, public health, and social work professionals. Study Design, Setting, and Participants A cross-sectional 31-item questionnaire was completed by 306 undergraduate and graduate nutrition, public health, and social work students attending higher education institutions across the United States (n=13). This abstract summarizes two open-ended questions that captured current impactful course activities/assignments and student suggestions to improve college curricula. Measurable Outcome/Analysis Inductive thematic coding approach by two independent coders to analyze current course activities/assignments and student suggestions to improve college curricula. Results Class lecture and discussions about food insecurity topics were most frequently reported by students as impactful activities. Lectures or discussions that focused on defining food security and populations that are at greater risk for food insecurity were most impactful to students. Students suggested improving curricula by increasing awareness of food insecurity resources, building skills to assist populations with food insecurity, and enhancing current course curricula. High emphasis was placed on increasing application-based opportunities (eg, service-learning), skills training, awareness of community and campus food security resources, and coverage of food security topics. Conclusion Impactful training to prepare students to assess and respond to food insecurity in individuals and communities is a public health need. Student respondents in this study suggest means of enhancing their food insecurity-related training, which may be used to develop a toolkit for instructors in related fields. Funding Funding for participant incentives was provided by the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University Nutrition Department. Providing comprehensive food insecurity education and training in higher education is critical for preparing nutrition, public health, and social work students to address this issue in their future careers. Not much is known about course activities that aim to prepare students to screen, monitor, and intervene upon food insecurity in their future careers. To describe impactful food security-related course activities and to synthesize student suggestions to improve the training of future nutrition, public health, and social work professionals. A cross-sectional 31-item questionnaire was completed by 306 undergraduate and graduate nutrition, public health, and social work students attending higher education institutions across the United States (n=13). This abstract summarizes two open-ended questions that captured current impactful course activities/assignments and student suggestions to improve college curricula. Inductive thematic coding approach by two independent coders to analyze current course activities/assignments and student suggestions to improve college curricula. Class lecture and discussions about food insecurity topics were most frequently reported by students as impactful activities. Lectures or discussions that focused on defining food security and populations that are at greater risk for food insecurity were most impactful to students. Students suggested improving curricula by increasing awareness of food insecurity resources, building skills to assist populations with food insecurity, and enhancing current course curricula. High emphasis was placed on increasing application-based opportunities (eg, service-learning), skills training, awareness of community and campus food security resources, and coverage of food security topics. Impactful training to prepare students to assess and respond to food insecurity in individuals and communities is a public health need. Student respondents in this study suggest means of enhancing their food insecurity-related training, which may be used to develop a toolkit for instructors in related fields.