Harvest for the World: A Practice in Strategic Non-profit Communication in Multicultural Communities
Date of Award
5-2017
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Legacy Department
Communication, Technology, and Society
Committee Member
Dr. Erin M. Ash, Committee Chair
Committee Member
Dr. D. Travers Scott
Committee Member
Dr. Andrew Pyle
Committee Member
Mike McGirr, Executive Director, Feed & Seed
Abstract
Feed & Seed is a food justice organization located in Greenville, South Carolina. Recently, the organization partnered with Spinx Corporation, a South Carolina based gas station and convenience store chain, to form the Spinx Market Garden. Spinx Market Garden is the latest Feed & Seed project designed to bring fresh and affordable nutrition options to an area in West Greenville that is considered a food desert. Feed & Seed has expressed a desire to increase outreach and engagement with multicultural community stakeholders in the West Greenville area. The purpose of this thesis project was to utilize strategic health communication theory to assist Feed & Seed in implementing outreach efforts that build community relationships and boost engagement for the Spinx Market Garden. I utilized strategic non-profit communication techniques as described by Patterson & Radtke (2009) to conduct a communication audit and create a plans book of recommendations to address Feed & Seed's outreach reach and engagement concerns. I conducted meta-research on existing Feed & Seed data and communications and generated new data from interviews with organization internal stakeholders and external community stakeholders to inform the recommendations. I used diffusion of innovation theory (Rogers, 2003) as the theoretical framework to conduct the research and to guide the plans book recommendations. The plans book content also draws influence from a culturally sensitive approach (Dutta, 2008) to assist the Feed & Seed in achieving the organizational objective of increased and meaningful multicultural outreach and engagement within the West Greenville area.
Recommended Citation
Allen, Avery, "Harvest for the World: A Practice in Strategic Non-profit Communication in Multicultural Communities" (2017). All Theses. 2596.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_theses/2596