COMMUNITY NUTRITION

FRESH-EATS: Fostering Resilience, Empowerment, and Sustainability through Healthy-Eating, Access, and Trauma-informed Strategies 

FRESH-EATS project is a community-derived multilevel-multicomponent nutrition intervention to reduce food access disparities. The study is funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD; R21MD019963) and aims to determine the feasibility of the FRESH-EATS intervention to improve dietary behaviors of children and their parents and potentially reduce the risks of obesity and cardiovascular diseases. The NIMHD Research Framework is applied to the FRESH-EATS project as shown in Table 1. This project is based on the recommendations from our previous Community Food Assessment (CFA) project described below. 

Food Environments and Grocery Shopping Patterns in East Tampa Neighborhoods, Tampa, Florida

Gray HL, Berumen JH, Lovett SM, Himmelgreen D, Biswas D, Bohn J, Peacock C, Buro AW. (2021). A community-based study to access community food environment and residents’ perceptions on grocery shopping patterns in underserved neighborhoods in Tampa, Florida.

Food Access in East Tampa report USF_Final_Heewon Gray.pdf

This community food assessment project conducted explored food environments and residents' grocery shopping patterns in East Tampa neighborhoods. The research team conducted store observations, consumer surveys, focus groups, and store manager interviews to better understand the access to healthy foods in the community. 

The findings imply that there is a need to improve the availability and accessibility of healthy foods in East Tampa neighborhoods by promoting healthy food options and fresh produce, adjusting prices for healthy food items, and improving the variety and quality of foods in existing stores. In addition, as the majority of community residents prefer to shop at large supermarkets or chain stores for their grocery needs, policymakers and community organizations could explore strategies to attract more healthy food retailers to the area. 

Many community residents reported that they travel outside their neighborhoods to find better quality and price of foods. Policymakers and community organizations could explore strategies to increase supermarket density and improve public transportation options to connect residents with healthy food retail stores.

Gray HL, Berumen JH, Lovett SM, Himmelgreen D, Biswas D, Bohn J, Peacock C, Buro AW. A Mixed-methods Study to Understand Food Environments and Grocery Shopping Patterns of Community Residents in Underserved Neighborhoods in Tampa, Florida. Ecol Food Nutr. 2021 Jul-Aug;60(4):435-453. doi: 10.1080/03670244.2020.1862098. Epub 2020 Dec 23. PubMed PMID: 33356564.