Recipient Organization
CANKDESKA CIKANA COMMUNITY COLLEGE
PO BOX 269
FORT TOTTEN,ND 58335
Performing Department
Land Grant Programs
Non Technical Summary
Cankdeska Cikana Community College is seeking funding through the Tribal College Research Grant Program to develop and apply methodologies for participatory research in food literacy. The project will build capacity for CCCC land grant staff to engage in research activities by providing an opportunity to develop and apply culturally appropriate research methodology. The strategy will rely on initial qualitative methods to collect community input through focus groups, Photovoice methodology, and one-on-one interviews. The data will be analyzed determine food literacy variables that are unique to the Spirit Lake Reservation community. The project partners will then use the variables to develop a single, valid survey to identify the extent to which community members understand the process of growing, procuring, and preparing both healthy traditional and contemporary foods. Quantitative data will be interpreted and shared in a community wide publication. The research findings will be shared with the community and participants to facilitate a collaborative effort to chart the course for future Land Grant projects in food and agriculture. From learning about the community's general food literacy levels, targeted educational programs can then be developed and implemented that will teach and encourage healthy eating patterns and deploy the necessary community organizing efforts needed to drive food systems changes that will bring healthy foods to the community. All phases of the project will be integrated into current and ongoing program activities in food, nutrition, and community agriculture to help build program wide capacity to maintain and improve our strengths and assets.
Animal Health Component
30%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
30%
Applied
30%
Developmental
40%
Goals / Objectives
The mission of the CCCC Land Grant Program is to encourage social sustainability and environmental responsibility through culturally appropriate research, education, and extension. Since 2010, the CCCC Land Grant Programs have been successful in acquiring resources and implementing projects to help address health disparities by enhancing food security throughout the Spirit Lake Reservation Community. As of 2011, there are five staff and four student interns dedicating time to projects related to community education in nutrition, gardening and vegetable crop production, food preparation and preservation, and marketing food products.Project activities such as providing tours of college gardens, hosting farmers markets, offering workshops on a variety of topics, providing technical assistance, distributing printed resource materials, and providing tilling services to community elders each provide an occasion for valuable community engagement and exchange. Participants share stories. They talk about the ways their grandparents or parents grew, harvested, and prepared foods. They share their knowledge about food and ask questions that express their interest in learning more. The exchange of information that occurs through land grant activities should not be underestimated as casual conversation or anecdotal information it is rich with evidence regarding what people know or want to learn about foods. The degree to which community members discuss food sources, methods for preparation and preservation, and the relationship food has to health is known as food literacy. The CCCC Land Grant Programs will utilize award funds from the Tribal College Research Grant Program to build the capacity of land grant staff and students to engage in research activities to explore and document food literacy among Spirit Lake Reservation community members. The objectives of the project will be to develop culturally appropriate research methodology, build capacity for the CCCC land grant staff to engage in research activities, apply the research methodology. Utilize research findings to inform future directions of the land grant programs. We will learn about current and traditional tribal foodways using methods such as Photovoice, interviews, and focus groups and then develop a simple, valid and reliable tool to measure food literacy. The food literacy tool will identify the extent to which tribal members understand the process of growing, procuring, and peparing both healthy traditional and contemporary foods. From learning about the community's general food literacy levels, targeted educational programs can then be developed and deployed that will do two things, 1) teach and encourage healthy eating patterns, and 2) deploy the necessary community organizing efforts needed to drive food systems changes that will bring healthy foods to the community.
Project Methods
The project will be completed in four phases: research design, data collection, data analysis, and sharing results. Participatory research techniques such as focus groups, Photovoice , and interviews will inform the development of a valid and reliable measure of food literacy. The research findings will be shared with the community and participants to facilitate a collaborative effort to chart the course for future Land Grant projects in food and agriculture. All phases of the project will be integrated into current and ongoing program activities to help build program capacity to maintain and improve our strengths and assets. The project partners will visit CCCC in September. Land grant activities will be at their peak with community engagement in vegetable harvest, farmers markets, and food preservation, providng an opportunity for participant engagement in focus groups and Photovoice. Workshops and tours will provide a convenient venue to initiate focus groups and allow the project partners to gain an initial sense of the participants' skills, knowledge, and experiences as they share their successes and challenges of the growing season. Photovoice, a qualitative research method, uses photography as a means for participants to give visual voice to their concerns, in this project, the issue of access to healthy foods. Participants will be asked to spend one week taking photographs, of which they will choose several of their "favorites" to discuss in a formal, facilitated session. This type of community input provides the project partners with an opportunity to engage with participants and establish mutual relationships. The increased understanding of community needs and assets will be influential as the project partners analyze community input to elicit food literacy variables unique to the Spirit Lake Reservation conditions. The food literacy variables will then be used to develop a survey to identify the extent to which community members understand the process of growing, procuring, and preparing both healthy traditional and contemporary foods. The data collection process will take place in combination with land grant activities from April to November. The duration of the data collection phase also allows for the evaluation of the increasing skills, knowledge, abilities, and experiences of land grant staff and students in research methodology. The project partners will examine the data in relationship to the current programs to determine possible directions of future projects and activities. The land grant staff and students will be involved in discussions and will have the opportunity to create a project publication for the community. The last phase of the project will coincide with the growing season of 2014. The results will be shared through in a community wide publication and presentation.