The Society for Hospitality and Foodservice Management (SHFM) Foundation is pleased to announce that Iowa State University is the recipient of the 2018 Hospitality and Foodservice Original Research Award. The Foundation established the award in order to fund the investigation of key operation and management issues in the hospitality and corporate foodservice industry. Iowa State University was selected for this honor from a field of both U.S. and international universities.
The SHFM Foundation provides educational opportunities for the next generation of hospitality and corporate foodservice leaders through student scholarships, internships, faculty stipends, and course funding to support curriculum delivery. As part of these efforts, the Foundation established the SHFM Foundation Original Research Award Program to benefit the industry, academic community, and students. “With students and their education at the core of our mission, we see tremendous opportunities to support and inspire future hospitality leaders, both professionally and financially. This long-standing Foundation commitment has helped, literally, thousands of college students to realize their dreams and achieve their career goals,” said Tracy Kelly, Chair, Board of Directors, SHFM Foundation.
The winning team from Iowa State University will focus its research on Using Advertising Message-Framing to Reduce Food Waste at Conventions and Events. Their research will “explore how event and convention managers can participate in their attendees’ plate waste-reduction efforts through the use of advertising messaging framing.” The project’s primary investigator, Eric D. Olson, PhD, said, “We will be conducting interviews with SHFM members, creating field experiments in a restaurant setting, and talking with actual event and convention attendees to obtain diverse perspectives on food waste. We look forward to working with members of SHFM in the implementation of our project, and we are very excited for this opportunity.”
The Iowa State team will attend the 2018 SHFM National Conference, at which they will present their research concepts to the attendees and interact with SHFM members. The team will also attend the 2019 SHFM National Conference to present the results of their research prior to the publication of their findings and conclusions.