At the latest CoCreate Health Sprint, Friday, March 6, more than 100 students from seven faculties collaborated on interdisciplinary solutions to inform uOttawa’s food security strategy, gaining new skills and earning credits in the process.
Students had a theoretical $200,000 to spend and 48 hours to work with. As in the first Telfer Innovation Sprint, they engaged in design thinking to study the issues from various perspectives, looking for the interconnected factors, knowledge gaps and food practices that influence food insecurity before retooling and refining their solutions with help from community mentors.
Encouraging student-led solutions
Claire Kendall, associate dean of social accountability at the Faculty of Medicine and co-chair of uOttawa’s Food Security Strategy Advisory Committee, says it was important to involve student voices in their work.
“Through the sprint, student voices will directly inform our institutional strategy, helping us strengthen community and move towards concrete actions that will improve the health and well-being of our campus.”
“Through the sprint, student voices will directly inform our Institutional Strategy, helping us strengthen community and move towards concrete actions that will improve the health and well-being of our campus.”
Claire Kendall
— Co-chair, uOttawa Food Security Strategy Advisory Committee
Eric Bercier, interim vice-president, finance and administration, says the goal is for uOttawa’s food strategy to create the foundations for academic success.
“Addressing food insecurity at the University of Ottawa is about advancing equity, strengthening student well-being and ensuring every student has the foundation to succeed.”
“Addressing food insecurity at the University of Ottawa is about advancing equity, strengthening student well-being, and ensuring every student has the foundation to succeed.”
Éric Bercier
— Interim vice-president, finance and administration
Food struggles amid abundance
The challenge isn’t a simple lack of food. Whether tacos, tofu or tabouleh, there’s no shortage of options on campus. However, a growing number of students say accessible and affordable food is increasingly difficult to find.
In uOttawa’s latest Healthy Plates survey, 42% of students reported some degree of food insecurity — up 50% since 2021. A further 13% reported severe insecurity, a figure that doubled over the same period. Nearly half of graduate students said they cut meal sizes or skip meals to save money.
The effects of food insecurity hit even harder among uOttawa’s international students and those with disabilities or chronic medical conditions.
Numerous barriers stand between students and a good meal. Many students arrive with little experience cooking for themselves. Those unaccustomed to food shortages are often embarrassed to ask for help. Fragmentation and information silos mean some programs go underused while others are stretched beyond capacity.
At the same time, the complex interplay between students’ living arrangements, work/study schedules and dietary needs makes a one-size-feeds-all solution unworkable.
When academics and well-being suffer
Cognition suffers without proper nutrition, increasing the likelihood of lower academic performance. Students experiencing food insecurity are twice as likely to report poor mental health and six times more likely to consider dropping out due to stress.
“Food plays a vital role in both physical and mental health, especially during the important period students spend at university building the foundation for their careers,” says Isabelle Giroux, full professor of nutrition in the School of Nutrition Sciences at the Faculty of Health Sciences and a registered dietitian.
“Food plays a vital role in both physical and mental health, especially during the important period students spend at university building the foundation for their future careers.”
Isabelle Giroux
— Full professor of nutrition, School of Nutrition Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences
Ingredients of a healthy food system
The sprint kicked off with a presentation from Deyowidron’t Teri Morrow, an Indigenous registered dietitian. Morrow explained how Indigenous food systems emphasize community well-being through a synthesis of cooking, culture and knowledge.
She then encouraged students to integrate the personal relationships, land-based learning and knowledge of local crops at the core of these systems into their own solutions. She also applauded Indigenous campus leadership’s participation in uOttawa’s food security strategy and encouraged leaders to continue working for change.
Members of uOttawa’s Food Services, Health and Wellness unit and Office of the Vice-Provost, International, then briefed students on their programs and invited them to engage in solutions that could expandtheir reach or impact. A presentation from Growcer — a food enterprise founded by Telfer alumni — opened students’ eyes to the possibilities of modular vertical farms in unlikely places.
Strengthening campus-community engagement
By 1 p.m. Sunday, all 22 teams had uploaded their final sprint presentations to Brightspace.
Each team had six minutes to pitch its solutions to a panel of judges, who evaluated them according to four criteria:
- Clarity and impact
- Feasibility and implementation plan
- Visual communication and poster design
- Team presentation and engagement
The finalists were:
- Team 9, whose Crossplates On Wheels would lower the stigma of food insecurity and increase awareness of support programs through custom-built, insulated delivery carts to be designed by uOttawa engineering students.
- Team 14, whose Food Patrolimagines lowering barriers to free food through an online aggregator, mobile app and volunteer delivery.
- Team 20, whose Plates with Purposepromises to raise student awareness of food support programs and lower the stigma of accessing them by consolidating information from across campus and the broader Ottawa community in Brightspace.
Team 9 took the Peoples’ Choice award while Team 20 won the Judge’s Choice award.
Students helping students
As winners, teams 9 and 20 will feed their ideas into the Food Security Strategy Advisory Committee. All teams can pursue their solutions further through self-directed courses.
Nadine Wiper-Bergeron, vice-dean, graduate and postdoctoral studies, at the Faculty of Medicine, said all solutions demonstrated extensive engagement with community partners, campus resources and food service providers, showing students had grasped the interdisciplinary nature of the challenge and applied their newly-acquired skills.
“The sprint highlighted the importance of collaborative efforts to develop strategies that empower students to be involved in creating food security for all.”
Nadine Wiper-Bergeron
— Vice-dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies, Faculty of Medicine
“Overall, this invaluable sprint empowered students across academic units to have an open dialogue with community members, experts and mentors about how each of us can contribute to reducing food insecurity,” she said.
"It also highlighted the importance of collaborative efforts to develop strategies that empower students to be involved in creating food security for all."
The sprint was conducted in partnership with the Business + Higher Education Roundtable, and with the support of the Government of Canada. Special thanks as well to the Career Development Experiential Learning Team.