Using Food Bank Client Data to Better Understand the Impacts of COVID-19 in Saskatoon

The SFBLC has been collecting detailed information on their clients and their socio-demographic and economics characteristics for more than five years. However, apart from collating overall summary numbers on things like user counts, which they report annually to Food Banks Canada, they largely lack the internal capacity to do a detailed analysis of this data and explore ways that it can inform their operations and planning. They have even fewer resources that they can allocate for exploring ways that the organization’s data can be used to inform questions of wider concern to the community or to social research in Canada generally. This lack of capacity has become particularly acute in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. The primary value of the internship will be to begin to fill these gaps. It will also lay a foundation for future collaborative work between the SFBLC and the academic research community. Additionally, the knowledge produced from this work, can be used to inform wider-policy in Canada. This project will also provide an adaptable framework and methodology for which organizations and researchers across the country may use for in their own social support efforts.

Faculty Supervisor:

Rachel Engler-Stringer;Charles Plante

Student:

Connor Phillip Morrison

Partner:

Saskatoon Food Bank and Learning Centre

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Health care and social assistance

University:

University of Saskatchewan