Investigating the Impact of COVID-19 on the First Year Eats Program
Abstract
First Year Eats (FYE) is a program at Texas A&M University developed to lessen food insecurity and its impact on college campuses. In its three years of development, students in the program have been provided with various cooking lessons that teach participants how to prepare simple meals in a dorm room and food resources such as ingredients and other grocery store items in a community kitchen. To assess the program's success, we have used student GPA as a measure of academic success and two surveys aimed at measuring mental health wellness. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was used to measure stress levels, and the University Belonging Questionnaire (UBQ) was used to measure university belongingness. Students participating in the FYE learning community are compared with a population of learning community students not in the FYE program (NFYE). Three academic years of data, including the first, second, and current students participating in FYE, were investigated. The results of the combined dataset of first- and second-year groups revealed that underrepresented minorities and first-generation students in FYE had a statistically significantly higher GPA than similar students not in the program during the Spring semester of their first year. This significant difference in GPA was not found during the students' Fall semester, suggesting that the FYE program played a role in improving academic performance. The FYE program continues to play a role in academic success and mental health for participants, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Current students in the program revealed a statistically significant higher Fall midterm GPA for students within FYE compared to NFYE students. This preliminary analysis also indicated that FYE was a factor in predicting midterm grades in Fall 2021. Regarding early PSS and UBQ survey analysis, FYE students in Fall 2021 had a higher level of belongingness than NFYE students. Although the findings were statistically insignificant, additional investigation into the Spring 2022 semester could reveal more about the program's impact on student mental wellness. Further study regarding the effects of remote learning and the pandemic could be investigated in the future for the improvements of the FYE program.
Subject
food insecuritylearning community
college freshman
underrepresented minorities
stress
belongingness
grade point average
academic success
well being
first generation
Citation
Tran, Jasmine Ngoc (2023). Investigating the Impact of COVID-19 on the First Year Eats Program. Undergraduate Research Scholars Program. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /196528.