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JMU STORYMAP

In order to learn more about food insecurity at JMU, I conducted a series of interviews with faculty, students, and administrators from different areas of campus. The purpose of this investigation was to get a sense of what was being done at JMU to address food insecurity, as well as identify student support advocates who would be interested in working towards change. To create this StoryMap, I selected sound bites of the strongest two to three minutes from each interview. Each of the interviews was about thirty minutes in length. From this inquiry, I learned that very little is being done to address food insecurity among students at the level of the administration. While there are individuals engaged in advocacy work, like promoting student writing on the issue and raising awareness about the Grad n' Go food pantry, no long-term solutions have yet been proposed. I also learned about the biggest obstacles to changing the current campus culture and the need for statistically significant data. The more interviews I conducted, the more evident it became that I needed to get all of these stakeholders in one room at the same time. What emerged from this project was the idea to create a "task force," or community advocacy group, dedicated to addressing JMU student food insecurity.

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