Davidson College Students’ Relationship to Cooking and Access to Resources: the Development of a College Cookbook
With the advent of the Davidson College Farm’s Wednesday Market, students now have the opportunity to purchase fresh produce on campus. We understand that students have limited access to cooking space, time and resources, so we are investigating how an online cookbook would educate students on the resources they have available on campus to cook and encourage them to purchase produce from the Davidson College Farm’s Market Stand. The questions we are investigating are “Do Davidson College students lack the needed equipment to cook meals in on-campus living spaces?”, and “What would be an effective and useful digital cookbook for students on Davidson Campus that would also encourage produce sales from the Davidson Campus Farm?”. To answer these questions, we are conducting qualitative interviews with around twelve students based on different demographic variables including but not limited to experience at the Davidson College Farm, PCC organization, and class year. In our interviews we ask questions about eating and cooking habits on campus, challenges to cooking on campus, and interactions with the Davidson College Farm and Market Stand. We will use the results from these interviews and benchmarking research of other college-related cookbooks to create an online resource for students. This cookbook will outline the cooking resources that students have access to on campus, cooking techniques for dorm rooms and kitchens, and recipes emphasizing the use of the Farm’s market produce.