PCC Climate Action Plan: Food Justice Opportunity

Open Opportunity

About

Are you looking for a CBL project? Would you like to get involved with PCC’s Climate Action Plan? 
We are looking for students to help us gather data about food resources near PCC’s campus. 
This project will be completed virtually. Please read below for more details. 

Introduction to the Climate Action Plan
PCC has recently released the 2021 Climate Action Plan (CAP), the college’s five-year roadmap towards climate justice. Please take a few moments to look over the plan including the goals and strategies. As you can see in Resiliency, goal 4, supporting food justice for PCC students and the community is one of our priorities.

The Project

As we are currently still in remote operations, we are not able to be on campus to engage in any in-person data collection or campus-based research. However, using the internet/phone, you can still collect important data! These data will be used to inform the PCC community about access to affordable food.

Specifically, we are looking for people to collect data about the availability of food resources (like restaurants, grocery stores, farmers markets) near each of the campuses. This data will then be used to create a map to inform future PCC students, faculty, and staff. We are trying to paint a picture of what food is available close to campus, how far away it is, how affordable that food is, if they cater to specific needs (vegan, gluten-free, allergy-friendly, etc.), as well as other details (including if they take SNAP, links to menus, hours, bus routes that access these locations and more). We also want to include places where students could get free food (food pantries, free meal locations), farmers markets, community kitchen spaces, or any other food-related business that you can think of!

Why is this important? Not all people have access to the same food. Oftentimes options that are close and convenient could be less healthy and more expensive. The sustainability team at PCC is trying to get a better picture of what sorts of options exist near each of the 4 PCC campuses. 


Your tasks:
For this project, you can spend as much time as you want collecting data about food resources close to PCC Campuses. You will submit all the data you collected by "Adding an Impact" to this event (video on how to add an impact).

You will be trying to find the following information for each of your food resources:
  • Business Name
  • Type of business 
    • Restaurant
    • Corner market
    • Grocery store
    • Food cart
    • Fast food
    • Food pantry
    • Free meals
  • Address
  • Distance from campus (in miles). Use the walking distance for this, so we know how far it would be to walk.
  • Are there any bus lines that stop near campus and stop near this location? We don’t want to include trips with transfers for this project. 
  • Link to menu if available
  • Price representation. 
    • How many $5 options are there? 0, <3, 3-5, >5. What are some examples of $5 options?
    • How many $10 options are there? 0, <3, 3-5, >5. What are some examples of $10 options?
    • How many $15 options are there? 0, <3, 3-5, >5. What are some examples of $15 options?
  • Payment options:
    • Cash
    • Credit/Debit
    • SNAP
  • Availability options:
    • Hot food
    • Salad bar
    • Grab-and-go foods
    • Fresh Produce
    • Others?
  • Inclusivity Options
    • Locally sourced foods/ingredients
    • Organic options
    • Vegan options
    • Gluten-free options
    • Food allergy-friendly options
    • Healthy choices (low sugar, whole grain, etc.)
    • Culturally diverse food choices
    • Others?
  • Sustainability Choices
    • Recycling available?
    • Compost?
    • Sustainable packaging used?
    • Low/no packaging options?
    • Anything else this business would be proud to share about their sustainability efforts?
Our goal will be to try and get information on as many places close to PCC campuses as possible. Try and look close to campus first before you expand your search area. Also keep in mind that a bus trip that doesn’t require any transfers is often just as easy as something that could be considered “walkable”!