Best of CASE District VII Award
 

Institution: University of California, Davis

Title of entry: Aggie Eats: Tackling Food Insecurity at UC Davis

About this entry: In 2023, UC Davis launched a groundbreaking initiative to tackle food insecurity for students on campus with the Aggie Eats Food Truck. This collaboration between Aggie Compass (Basic Needs Center), UC Davis Dining Services, and philanthropic support resulted in a daily “pay what you want” food truck on campus. As this initiative was only possible from philanthropic support, UC Davis Student Affairs asked our marketing team at UC Davis Student Housing and Dining Services to create a video that introduces the Aggie Eats food truck program to the campus community, communicates the impact this initiative has on student success, and thanking those who are supporting the basic needs of UC Davis students. From 2023 to 2024 we worked closely with staff at Aggie Compass, the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, and UC Davis Dining Services to gather information about the initiative, scripted out interview questions, and filmed and edited the video. As we knew our audience was vast, everyone from students, donors, staff, and even other higher education institutions, we focused our storytelling on context, impact, and empathy. The result of this strategic storytelling was a video posted in late 2024 that was used not only at an executive and donor level, but also as the feature video for the Aggie Eats webpage and for student education surrounding the program.