Researching at Hill Coffee Co.
Author: Cate Mertins | Majors: Accounting & Food Science | Semester: Fall 2022
My name is Cate Mertins, and I am a senior double majoring in accounting in the Walton College of Business and food science in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food, and Life Sciences. I have spent the Fall 2022 semester researching food recovery and its potential for expansion into Greek life houses on campus with the help of my WCOB faculty mentor, Molly Rapert. I have one more semester left to finish my thesis and graduate from college, and I plan to enter the workforce to gain experience before seeking my MBA.
With food insecurity and food waste simultaneously on the rise, there is an obvious solution to fix both problems: recover uneaten food and feed it to hungry people. The Volunteer Action Center at the UofA has a fantastic food recovery program implemented in the dining halls on campus. However, there seems to be an opportunity to expand into the 21 Greek Life houses that each have their own dining operations. The problem is that they are independent of each other and aren’t operated or regulated by the same company as the dining halls. My research seeks to explore what opportunities lie in Greek life facilities for food recovery at the UofA and other universities across the nation. The research design is a combination of student surveys, in-depth interviews with key food system stakeholders (such as house chefs, catering companies, and VAC leaders), and website audits of other SEC schools. The goal is to have an understanding of student perceptions of food waste, obstacles that prevent stakeholders from supporting sustainability initiatives, and what resources would be required to expand food recovery into Greek dining facilities on campus.
When I took introduction to food law with professor Sarah Jones in 2020, I learned about the Bill Emerson Food Donation Act of 1996, which provides civil and criminal liability protection for anyone or any business that makes food donations to nonprofits, also known as food recovery. It was incredibly frustrating to also learn that many business owners refuse to donate extra food because they still hold the misconception that doing so is a liability for them or their company. I was intrigued in learning more about food recovery around me, and I discovered the VAC’s food recovery partnership with dining halls on campus. I then started questioning where all the extra food from my own sorority house, and then other Greek chapter houses was going. With help from my mentor, Dr. Molly Rapert, we crafted the research design and built out a timeline for my thesis.
Dr. Rapert became a family friend several years ago and is the person who first showed me around the Walton College after I decided to attend the university. She has naturally been my mentor and biggest supporter throughout the years, and when I needed help with my thesis, she was the first person I went to. I am quite the procrastinator, which I told her up-front, so communication about timelines way in advance and setting clear deadlines has been key to my success. Her experience with past thesis students was also lifesaving; one of her former students, Manny Mejia, made a thorough guide to submitting IRB protocols, which helped me fast-track my survey process to collect data. Additionally, she knew everything about the research grant process, and I credit my grant to her proactivity in having me submit my proposal in the earliest round of applications.
So far in my research, I’ve learned the most from casually talking to people about my thesis. Every member of Greek life I’ve talked to has jumped at the opportunity to tell me what their chapter does or doesn’t do with their leftover food and their own ideas for food recovery. Students I work with at the VAC and my managers at Chartwells have given me great contacts to do in-depth interviews with. To date, I’ve collected 336 survey responses, 265 of which are from Greek life students who belong to chapters with dining facilities. Most respondents didn’t know much about their chapter’s dining operations, but those who gave answers often conflicted with others from their own chapter. For example, two respondents from the same chapter said “throw away” and “donated” when asked what happened to uneaten food. In-depth interviews next semester with chapter house managers and chefs will hopefully clear up these discrepancies and paint a clearer picture of operations for each chapter. Overall, my research and conversations this past semester have opened a lot of doors and sparked new questions for continuing this Spring.
The main problem that I faced in the Fall was gaining access to contacts within Greek life. Because the chapters are so private (at least compared to the openness of a public University), it was time consuming to ask around until finding someone who knows the chapter officer I was looking for, i.e., sustainability chair at XYZ fraternity. Eventually, I was able to network through enough people to get who I needed, but even then, I’ve had some non-response when I did contact them. As I enter the data analysis phase, my survey responses are skewed towards certain chapters that participated more, but I will disclose this in my presentation of the research. Another obstacle that I’ve been working against is procrastination. It’s a natural response for many students, but with a project as big as a thesis, I’d encourage everyone to be honest with their mentors about their tendencies to procrastinate, because it’s easier to work around if you have someone to hold you accountable.
In all honesty, having a great mentor and a passion for the work, starting early, and setting intermediate deadlines has made this process a breeze. I still have a semester left of work, in which I will complete the in-depth interviews, analyze the data, and draw conclusions, but I am excited to see the results, and I’m grateful for the continued support of the honors college.