Surveying US College and University Dining Services for Potential Collaboration on Diet Change Research 2017-2018

Collaboration with colleges and universities may be a promising opportunity for collecting data on what foods people buy. This data could support research in animal advocacy and other fields seeking to change diet, including reducing the purchase and consumption of animal products. To help build these collaborations, information about the dining services at 66 campuses in the United States was collected. Using this information, we tried to identify campuses which were likely to have detailed information on the food students buy and be willing to collaborate with researchers. We identified three such campuses and 25 campuses that likely do not meet those criteria. Researchers should consider collaborating with the identified campuses, searching for additional campuses as well as alternative research methods that do not require such detailed information. Read more in the full report.