Source: UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA submitted to NRP
A SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL APPROACH TO IMPROVING THE EARLY CHILDHOOD FOOD ENVIRONMENT FOR LIMITED RESOURCE FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN AGES 0-2 YEARS OLD
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1030205
Grant No.
2023-68015-39603
Cumulative Award Amt.
$918,472.00
Proposal No.
2022-08689
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Apr 15, 2023
Project End Date
Apr 14, 2028
Grant Year
2023
Program Code
[A1344]- Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Disease
Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
G022 MCCARTY HALL
GAINESVILLE,FL 32611
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The overarching goal of this integrated research-extension project is to improve food security through increased availability of age appropriateness of foods and hunger coping skills of low-income families with children ages 0-2 years old using a socio-ecological approach. We will pursue this study in four objectives to address the Diet, Nutrition and Prevention of Chronic Diseases (A1344) program priority area:1. Conduct an inventory/scan of emergency food program availability and quality of food resources appropriate for children ages 0 to 2 years;2. Conduct formative research with low income parents of children ages 0 to 2 years and community stakeholders to determine barriers to obtaining or providing adequate, age appropriate food for infants and toddlers;3. Develop and disseminate an evidenced-informed program and policy "Baby-Friendly" toolkit and resources for stakeholders to implement recommended changes to improve food availability in emergency food programs and hunger coping skills of families with children ages 0 to 2 years; and4. Assess changes in availability of age appropriate foods in emergency food programs (main outcome), hunger coping skills of low-income families with children ages 0 to 2, household food security, and awareness and utilization of evidence-informed program and policies recommendations by stakeholders.An intervention and comparison community will be identified and an advisory committee formed of vested community stakeholders. This socio-ecological approach will address barriers and opportunities to improving early childhood food environment thereby improving food security and reducing obesity and chronic disease risk later in life.
Animal Health Component
90%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
0%
Applied
90%
Developmental
10%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
70460991010100%
Knowledge Area
704 - Nutrition and Hunger in the Population;

Subject Of Investigation
6099 - People and communities, general/other;

Field Of Science
1010 - Nutrition and metabolism;
Goals / Objectives
The overarching goal of the project is to improve the food environment through increased availability of age appropriate foods in emergency food programs and hunger coping skills of low-income families with children ages 0-2 years using a socio-ecological approach. Our objectives are to:Conduct an inventory/scan of emergency food program availability and quality of food resources appropriate for children ages 0 to 2 years (RESEARCH);Conduct formative research with low income parents of children ages 0 to 2 years and community stakeholders to determine barriers to obtaining or providing adequate, age appropriate food for infants and toddlers (RESEARCH);Develop and disseminate an evidenced-informed program and policy "Baby-Friendly" toolkit and resources for stakeholders to implement recommended changes to improve food availability in emergency food programs and hunger coping skills of families with children ages 0 to 2 years (EXTENSION); andAssess changes in availability of age appropriate foods in emergency food programs (main outcome), hunger coping skills (secondary outcome) of low-income families with children ages 0 to 2, household food security (secondary outcome), and awareness and utilization of evidence-informed program and policies recommendations by stakeholders (secondary outcome) (RESEARCH).
Project Methods
The overall project will include data collection of different aspects of the socio-ecological model and based in two 'communities'--one serving as an intervention site and one as a comparison site:An inventory/scan of emergency food program (e.g. food pantry) resources appropriate for 0-2 year old children (environmental): An inventory/scan of food pantries (10-12 emergency food programs/community) will be conducted at pre and post in identified intervention and comparison communities. Emergency food program sites will be selected based on advisory committee input and accessibility to families with young children. Information will also be collected about how accessible (location, hours) the programs are for community members and how often referrals are made to supporting services (e.g. WIC). A prior approved protocol and training will be conducted virtually and recorded for research assistants to ensure consistency in assessment techniques. Participating food pantries will receive a $50 incentive at both pre/post.The prior validated Nutrition Environment Food Pantry Assessment tool and/or Healthy Food Pantry Assessment tool will be adapted to include a tailored section to inventory foods in categories appropriate for 0-2 year olds and renamed as the "Baby Friendly Pantry Assessment Tool". These foods will include specialty items such as infant formula and baby food. Data will be summarized from each program as inventoried by trained research assistants using a scoring system, totaled, and averaged for each intervention and comparison "community". Changes in the score, nutritional quality of food, and proportion of "baby or toddler friendly" foods will be assessed pre/post intervention.Formative research (qualitative interviews) with stakeholders (community) and low-income parents (individual/interpersonal) to determine key barriers and opportunities to address early childhood food insecurity in two communities (group). Specifically:Stakeholders: Research assistants will conduct interviews with community stakeholders using a semi-structured script to determine perceptions regarding the facilitators and barriers to obtaining or providing adequate, high quality, and age appropriate food for infants and toddlers in low-income communities. Stakeholders will be recruited via phone and email. Approximately 12-15 stakeholders from each community will be interviewed. Interviews will be audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim for later analysis.Low-income parents: One-time, short, intercept surveys (n=50/group) will be conducted onsite at the food pantries with food pantry patrons who are parents to young children where the environmental scans will also take place. Intercept surveys will be conducted at pre and post in intervention and comparison communities. The purpose of the intercept survey is to determine what "baby or toddler friendly" foods or related items are most needed by families with young children (who use food pantries) and barriers to obtaining them and other essentials. Questions related to eligibility and participation in other relevant programs (e.g. WIC, SNAP) will also be assessed.Parents from the intercept surveys will be invited to participate in an in-depth interview at a later time. A semi-structured script with questions and predetermined probes grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior will be developed and used by the research team for the qualitative component of the interview to determine barriers to low-income parents obtaining or providing adequate age-appropriate foods for infants and toddlers. Questions will be focused on attitudes, subjective norms, behavioral control, and intentions as it relates to how parents of young children cope with food insecurity and corresponding behaviors and practices to obtain age appropriate foods. Further, prior validated questionnaires will be used to assess hunger coping skills, household food security and parental feeding style and practices.Development and implementation of a "Baby-Friendly" toolkit of best practices with resources to implement outreach and resolutions such as methods to improve pantry foods offered: The final electronic toolkit, based on prior formative research, proposed project findings, and advisory committee input, will be disseminated to at least 15-20 stakeholders in the intervention community including Extension programs, partners, and emergency food program sites serving low-income families. An online kickoff event will be hosted to share the toolkit with stakeholders. Toolkit contents will include action strategies to improve early childhood food security (e.g. promoting awareness and use of food assistance programs; vouchers or other strategies to offer food to families; delivery options for food pantries; innovative partnerships; new programs; materials or supplies to support educational efforts; small equipment (e.g. freezer) or infrastructure needs; referral or enrollment support in programs for families with children ages 0 to 2 years). An electronic evaluation tool will be integrated within the toolkit to assess fidelity including what strategies were implemented, what level, how often, resulting PSE changes, and future recommendations for improvements.

Progress 04/15/24 to 04/14/25

Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audiences in Alachua and Leon County, Florida include: food pantry sites food pantry workers community stakeholders familes with young children at risk for food insecurity project advisory committee (in Alachua County) Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We continue to recruit, train, employ and mentor undergraduate and graduate students within varoius aspects of the project including data collection, data analysis, qualitative assurance, advisory committee, etc. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have disseminated the advisory committee project summary report to community stakeholders within Alachua County and Florida. We have also presented initial findings to nutrition educators and researchers at the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior and local university symposium. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In this next year, we plan to finish data collection (objectives 1&2) and develop the intervention toolkit (objective 3). We will also host our 3rd advisory commitee meeting.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? During the second year of the project, we have accomplished the following in accordance with our project goal and objectives: Objective 1: To determine the availability and quality of foods appropriate for young children, we have completed inventory assessments at 28 food pantries across Alachua and Leon County, Florida. To determine barriers and opportunities to improving food and nutrition security for families with young children, we have also individually interviewed 43 food pantry workers. Objective 2: To determine barriers to obtaining adquate, age appropriate foods for their family, we surveyed 47 parents in Alachua County. We also individually interviewed 23 community stakeholders. Objective 3: Based upon the data collected in objectives 1 and 2, we have convened our advisory committee to develop strategies that will be used to create a toolkit to improve food and nutrition secuity within Alachua County, Florida. This toolkit will be coupled with a mini-grant program and outreach to faciliate implementation.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mobley AR, Shelnutt KP, Cheong J, Eicher-Miller H, Weber J, Zeldman J, Berger AL. A socio-ecological approach to improving nutrition security for families with children ages 0-2 years, SNEB 2024. poster presentation
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Under Review Year Published: 2025 Citation: Amy R. Mobley, PhD, RD, FAND, Alyssa L. Berger, MPH, Alvaro Sabogal, Nelta Timothee, MS, CHES, Jillian Carter, Karla P. Shelnutt, PhD, RD, Heather Eicher-Miller, PhD, Jennifer A. Weber, MPH, RD, JeeWon Cheong, PhD. Barriers and strategies to improve the emergency food environment for families with very young children at risk for food insecurity. SNEB 2025. poster presentation
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2025 Citation: Mobley AR, Buccini G, MacMillan-Uribe L, Stage V. Community Engaged Research to Improve Food and Nutrition Security in the first 2,000 days. SNEB symposium.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2025 Citation: Sabogal A. Mobley AR. Assessing availability of infant appropriate foods and items in food pantries. University of Florida HHP Research Symposium. March 2025 poster presentation
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2025 Citation: Timothee N. Mobley AR. Association of the use of hunger coping strategies and demographics of families with young children. University of Florida HHP Research Symposium. March 2025. poster presentation
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mobley AR. Early childhood food security advisory committee summary report. 2024


Progress 04/15/23 to 04/14/24

Outputs
Target Audience:We have multiple target audiences including: food pantry sites food pantry workers community stakeholders families with young children at risk for food insecurity Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have recruited and employed undergraduate and graduate students in our data collection efforts and other aspects of the project including the advisory committee meeting. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In our next reporting period, we plan to complete baseline data collection of food pantry inventories (objective #1), food pantry worker interviews (objective #1), parent and stakeholder interviews (objective #2) and begin analysis to develop the intervention toolkit.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? During this first year of the project, we have accomplished the following in accordance to our project goal and objectives. 1. We have identified our intervention and comparison communities and secured IRB approval for corresponding data collection efforts as applicable. We have hired personnel including a study coordinator and students. We also developed and began baseline data collection (n=6) including inventory scans of emergency food programs (i.e. food pantries) and food pantry worker interviews. These interviews will continue in both communities until target goals are met. 2. We have developed an intercept survey and interview script to conduct formative research with low-income parents of young children and and community stakeholders. We plan to begin recruitment soon. 3. We formed an advisory committee of community stakeholders and held our first project advisory committee meeting and began soliciting initial input for the "Baby-Friendly" pantry toolkit. 4. We are in the process of collecting baseline data for variables including the availability of age-appropriate foods in food pantries, hunger coping skills and household food security of parents with young children, and feedback from community stakeholders.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Sabogal A, Berger, A, Mobley AR. Assessing Infant Food Provision in Alachua County Food Pantries: Implications for Food Insecurity Mitigation, University of Florida. Undergraduate Research poster symposium
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Under Review Year Published: 2024 Citation: Amy R. Mobley, PhD, RD, FAND, Karla P. Shelnutt, PhD, RD, JeeWon Cheong, PhD, Heather Eicher-Miller, PhD, Jennifer A. Weber, MPH, RD, Jamie Zeldman, MS, RD, CHES, Alyssa L. Berger, MPH. A socio-ecological approach to improving nutrition security for families with children ages 0-2 years, abstract submitted to Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior annual meeting