Tracing the Roots of Nutrition Access: University to Community (2024-2025)
Food insecurity is a public health emergency in the United States due to its adverse impact on human health and well-being. Locally, one in 10 families in Durham reports skipping a meal because they did not have enough money to buy food. This rate increases drastically for Black and Hispanic households.
This project team explored Durham's organizational and resident barriers and facilitators to addressing food insecurity with a focus on federal programs and funding use. Building upon the findings of the 2023-2024 team, this team worked to support larger systems-level changes through two interrelated goals:
- Identifying community-driven, cross-sector strategies to increase food access, reduce food waste and improve food security for Durham residents.
- Obtaining community member input on identified strategies, including formalizing a Community Advisory Board to provide support and guidance for putting identified strategies into action.
To reach these goals, team members divided into two subgroups focused on organizations and residents. The “organizations” subgroup focused on strengthening connections between Duke Health and other community organizations. Students drew upon data collected in 2023-2024 and gathered additional data from Duke and other organizational personnel. Ultimately, this workstream developed recommendations for Duke to work collaboratively with community organizations to better leverage state and federal policies and to streamline, pool or re-allocate resources to address food insecurity and food waste in Durham.
The “residents” subgroup focused on engaging community members in developing action plans to carry out identified strategies. The team leveraged organizational relationships formed during 2023-2024 to recruit community members from across Durham. Team members elicited community input, including recruiting and providing incentives for approximately 10 residents to serve as a Community Advisory Board for this work moving forward.
Timing
Fall 2024 – Spring 2025
Team Outputs
Peer-reviewed manuscript
Report describing cross-sector solutions to food insecurity and food waste mitigation
Outreach products (e.g., exhibit, podcast, op-eds, public media) that capture community members' voices
See related team Tracing the Roots of Nutrition Access, Implementation and Policy (2023-2024).