Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:The Great Grocer Project (GGP) reached grocery stores within the city of Detroit, and in turn the staff and customers at these stores. Within the city of Detroit, the majority of residents (~90%) are racial/ethnic minorities with ~80% identifying as African American. A large majority of store owners and many of the staff within Detroit grocery stores also identify as Chaldean and/or Arab/Middle Eastern and include many immigrant families. Many of the city's residents are economically disadvantaged, with nearly a third of residents below the poverty level. Changes/Problems:There were several challenges that impacted this work, leading to a one year no cost extension.Some of the major challenges included staff changes at both of the primary organizations working on this project and the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic had an especially large impact on grocery stores, including supply chain issues andstaffing difficulties. Independent grocery store owners/managers disproportionately experienced difficultiesduring the pandemic, which may have contributed to them being less willing to collaborate on this work. Additionally, the fellowship program experienced challenges in years 2 and 3, as described in the accomplishments section. However, this experience has led to several lessons learned that will inform future work. For the fellowship program, it is important to ensure that the partnering community organizations have a strong and ongoing focus on food-related issues so that they can host a fellow for multiple years For example, an organization thathosted a successful fellow in year 1 later shifted their focus away from food, and this organization did not host a fellow the following years. Being able to collaborate with the same organizations on the fellowship for multiple years would strengthen the fellowship program. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Store owner/operators: Six store owners attended two virtual trainings that were provided on the project. Another 19 store owners were provided with the recording and information from the two virtual training sessions held. DFPC staff have also been working one-on-one with the co-op managers to provide support and technical assistance. Students: over the course of the project, ~15 undergraduate and ~10 graduate students have been involved in the project. They have been trained in various activities related to nutrition research and evaluation, including conducting the NEMS store assessments, conducting surveys, healthy food marketing activities, and conducting surveys and interviews. Community members: ~4 community members have been trained in conducting the NEMS store assessment How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?A public website/dashboard was launched with the list of the top 25 Great Grocers, and several media outlets have covered stories related to the Great Grocer Project. Local presentations have been given at the Detroit Food Summit and the MOTION Coalition (Detroit childhood obesity prevention coalition). Detroit Food Policy Council's social media and e-newsletter have also included information related to the Great Grocer Project. We are continuing to produce short briefs to disseminate findings from this project. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Relevance: While many refer to Detroit, Michigan as a food desert, most of the city does not meet the USDA definition of low-income/low access. However, there are few large, corporately operated chain grocery stores such as Meijer and Aldi within the Detroit city limits. Instead, the vast majority of Detroit's approximately 64 full-line grocery stores are independently owned and operated. These stores, many of which are much smaller than large chain supermarkets, have fewer offerings and typically have higher prices when compared to the large chains. Some of the independent stores have the reputation of being unclean, having poor quality food, and preying upon vulnerable Detroit residents who may not have the ability to travel outside their neighborhood to purchase groceries. Outcome 1A, 2A, and 3A A grocery store fellowship program was developed and implemented as part of this project. Fellows from four different community-based organizations engaged in the project. Each fellow was paired with an independent grocery store located near their organization. For the first iteration of the fellowship, the fellows remained engaged throughout the entire fellowship period. Challenges arose with the second wave of the fellowship, with both fellows dropping off over the course of their fellowship year. For one fellow, this was due to their organization experiencing challenges; the organization went down to a single staff member and staff capacity was reduced. The other fellow was lost to follow up. We contacted organizations to recruit the third and final round of fellows, but the organizations declined due to a lack of staff time to dedicate to the fellowship. New avenues to enhance engagement between the community and grocery stores are being explored. One strategy currently underway is reestablishing the Detroit Grocery Coalition (DGC), a convening of individuals and organization representatives who have an interest in improving the grocery environment of Detroit. The coalition will provide opportunities to strengthen ties and enhance collaborations between organizations on this work. Additionally, DFPC staff is working to bolster city council support and involvement in the DGC, and to enhance their awareness of DFPC's work more broadly. Outcome 1B DFPC staff have been working closely with a new Black-led food co-op that opened in 2024. The opening of this co-op has been over a decade in the making, and has been much desired by the community to enhance Black food sovereignty in the city of Detroit, which had been without any Black-owned full-line grocery stores for several years. The organization leading the co-op has primarily worked in the area of food sovereignty advocacy, education, and urban farming. Operating an independent grocery store is a new endeavor for the organization, and DFPC staff are helping the co-op with capacity building, leadership development, and technical assistance. Additionally, DFPC staff are collaborating with a local food business to develop trainings for local independent grocery stores. This local food business is well known for their unique trainings that focus on more than just increasing profits, but also enhancing customer service, supporting staff, and improving organizational culture. Outcome 2B Healthy food marketing, consisting of healthy item tags and a healthy checkout aisle, was implemented in 7 stores. We developed a nutrition scoring system to identify healthy foods, adapted from the American Heart Association's Heart-Check guidelines. Each category of food (i.e. meat, dairy, grains) has their own specific requirements, including limits on sodium, saturated fat, and added sugar. Items that met the requirements received a Great Grocer Project branded "Healthy Item" shelf tag, and posters that described the healthy item tags were placed in the grocery store. Additionally, each store had one checkout line converted into a "healthy checkout," where all foods and beverages displayed in the checkout aisle meet nutritional criteria (i.e. low in added sugar, sodium, saturated fat). The Center for Science in the Public Interest Healthy Checkout criteria was used for this component of the healthy food marketing. Store owners/managers were asked if they were interested in additional healthy food marketing activities, such as rearranging other areas of the store to make healthier items more prominent and less healthy items less prominent, but they declined to make any additional changes to their stores. Outcome 3B To assess the food environment of Detroit grocery stores, the Nutritional Environmental Measures Survey was used in 2021 and 2024, and compared to the baseline measures from 2018. The NEMS scores grocery stores in three categories: quality, availability, and price. The average quality score measures the quality of fresh produce, and was 6.0 in 2018, 5.8 in 2021, and 6.0 in 2024. The price score allots points when the relative price of healthier items is lower than a comparable less healthy item. For example, points would be awarded if a low sugar cereal is cheaper than a sugary cereal at a given store. The mean price score was1.2 in 2018, and 1.8 for both 2021 and 2024. The mean availability score, which measures the availability of healthy foods, rose consistently, from 20.1 in 2018, 20.6 in 2021, and 21.5 in 2024.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Bynum, Winona. Reducing Global Hunger through Community and Food Systems Initiatives. 2023. Wimpfheimer-Guggenheim International Lecture at the Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Dombrowski, Rachael; Bode, Bree; Bynum, Winona; Beavers, Alyssa; Hill, Alex; Kuras, Amy. Promoting healthy retailers for economic vitality in communities: The Great Grocer Project. 2024. APHA Annual Meeting and Expo
|
Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The Great Grocer Project (GGP) reached grocery stores within the city of Detroit, and in turn the staff and customers at these stores. Within the city of Detroit, the majority of residents (~90%) are racial/ethnic minoritieswith ~80% identifying as African American.A large majority of store owners and many of the staff within Detroit grocery stores also identify as Chaldean and/or Arab/Middle Eastern and include many immigrant families. Many of the city's residents are economically disadvantaged, with nearly a third of residents below the poverty level. Changes/Problems:A key staff member left Detroit Food Policy Council in May 2023 and a new staff member has not yet been hired to replace her work on facilitating the leadership of the initiative and the Adopt a Shop activities of the project. This major staff transition as well as the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have caused delays in the overall project including a delay in the launch of the second round of stores to promote for the Healthy Grocer Promotion activities, full implementation of the Healthy Food Marketing Initiative in 10 stores (only 5 have been completed), and the second round of evaluation for the GGP which is expected to be completed in December 2023. We have been granted a no-cost extension to August 2024 so that we can complete these activities and also complete the final round of evaluation in the stores in April/May 2023. Additionally, we have been working with DFPC to revise the Adopt a Shop activities as collaborations with fellows have proven difficult over the past year; we will explore how to alter the fellowship activities to enhance fellow engagement. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training and professional development has been provided to six community fellows, 12 WSU students, and 31 stores owners and staff. Community fellows and students were trained in evaluation activities and implementation of the Healthy Food Marketing Intervention. Store owners/staff were trained in produce stocking and pricing, healthy food marketing and nutrition education. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have been disseminated via the following means: the Detroit Food Policy Council's (DFPC) website, DFPC yearly summit presentations to the community, communications in newsletters via the community based organization partners and the Detroit Grocery Coalition partners, DFPC media interviews on local news outlets to promote the project and the work we are conducting in grocery stores What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Healthy food marketing: we will conduct healthy food marketing in an additional 5 grocery stores. Fidelity checks and marketing evaluation will also be completed alongside the marketing. Fellowship: due to the challenges experienced during this round of the store fellowship program, we willl work to develop a new plan of action for the fellowship program going forward (explained more in challenges/problems section). Evaluation: we will conduct a final round of evaluation during the next reporting period
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Outcome 1A: fellows have been engaged in the project from the following community based organizations: Church of the Messiah, Joy Southfield Development Corporation, Matrix Human Services, and Brightmoor Artisans Collective. These fellows have collaborated with HarborTown Market, Prince Valley Market, Old Redford Market, and Mike's Fresh Market to implement healthy food marketing activities within these stores, engage employees in wellness activities, and complete evaluation activities (NEMS, customer surveys, store owner interviews) within these stores in collaboration with WSU. Outcome 2A:To date two of the fellows have collaborated with HarborTown Market and Old Redford Market to host promotion events within the stores. Outcome 1B:The Great Grocer Project provided COVID-19 safer grocery shopping training to all 64 of the Detroit grocery stores and online and in store training opportunities have been provided on an as needed basis to 10 stores. According to staff surveys, 90% of respondents felt adequately prepared to serve their community during COVID. In these surveys about 2/3 of respondents indicated that trainings provided by GGP were slightly or very effective and about ¾ reported that COVID relief supplies were effective or very effective. Regarding sales of healthy foods, 35% of respondents reported that overall sales of healthy foods increased. Regarding sales of specific types of healthy foods, nearly 40% reported that fruits and vegetables were selling more, 44% reported healthy frozen foods (fruits, vegetables, healthy frozen dinners) were selling more, and about 37% reported healthy beverages were selling more. Outcome 2B: MOUs and Healthy Food Marketing intervention activities have been implemented in five stores. This included development of a schema to tag healthy items, implementing the tagging in stores, developing and placing signage and recipes, and creating a healthy checkout aisle in each store. ?
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Dastgerdizad, H., Dombrowski, R.D., Bode, B., Knoff, K. A. G., Kulik, N., Mallare, J., Kaur, R., et al. (2023). Community Solutions to Increase the Healthfulness of Grocery Stores: Perspectives of Immigrant Parents. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(15), 6536. MDPI AG. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20156536.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Dastgerdizad, H., Dombrowski, R. D., Kulik, N., Knoff, K. A. G., Bode, B., Mallare, J., Elyaderani, D. K., et al. (2023). Enhanced Measurement of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Marketing to Young Immigrant Children in Grocery Store Environments. Nutrients, 15(13), 2972. MDPI AG. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu15132972.
|
Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:The Great Grocer Project (GGP) served 165 low-income families throughout the city of Detroit and reached up to 12,500Detroit consumers through our efforts within 25 grocery stores. Detroit residents face a myriad of social, economic and healthinequities as nearly 40% of families are food insecure and 85% of residents are minorities (77% African American). Through our training and promotion efforts we have collaborated with 25 store owners and 63 store staff who want to improve their stores.A large majority of store owners and staff within Detroit also identify as Chaldean and/or Arab/Middle Eastern and include many immigrant families. We began efforts within 5 select stores to promote healthy food purchases and consumption to their 2,500 customers within the City of Detroit Changes/Problems:The lead PI on the Great Grocer Project left Wayne State University (WSU) and began a position at California State University San Marcos (CSUSM) in July 2022. Given this transition, a new Co-PI at WSU was identified, Alyssa Beavers, and the grant management was transferred from the College of Education to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Nutrition and Food Science Department as of September 1, 2022. Also, a key staff member, Kibibi Blount Dorn, left Detroit Food Policy Council in August 2022 and a new staff member was hired (Dazmonique Carr) to fill her role in facilitating the leadership of the initiative and the Adopt a Shop activities of the project. These major staff transitions as well as the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have caused delays in the overall project including a delay in the launch of the second round of stores to promote for the Healthy Grocer Promotion activities, full implementation of the Healthy Food Marketing Initiative in 10 stores (only 5 have signed the MOU and had activities launched), and the second round of evaluation for the GGP. We plan to submit a No Cost Extension request in early 2023 for a one year extension to follow through with these major activities and overcome these changes/barriers in project implementation What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training and professional development has been provided to 4 community fellows, 12 WSU students, and five stores owners and staff. Community fellows and students were trained in evaluation activities and implementation of the Healthy Food Marketing Intervention. Store owners/staff were trained in produce stocking and pricing and healthy food marketing. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have been disseminated via the following means: the Detroi Food Policy Council's (DFPC) website, DFPC yearly summit presentations to the community, communications in newsletters via the community based organizationpartners and theDetroit Grocery Coalition partners, DFPCmedia interviews on local news outlets to promote the project and the work we are conducting in grocery stores What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Complete Healthy Food Marketing Intervention activities in the first five stores, launch the Healthy Food Marketing Intervention activities within the five remaining stores, conduct the second round of evaluation activities, develop the GGP toolkit, create a more robust training program for store owners and staff that includes more targeted technical assistance, and launch the second round of GGP stores.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Outcome 1A Four fellows have been engaged in the project from the following community based organizations: Church of the Messiah, Joy Southfield Development Corporation, Matrix Human Services, and Brightmoor Artisans Collective. These fellows have collaborated with HarborTown Market, Prince Valley Market, Old Redford Market, and Mike's Fresh Market to beginimplementing healthy food marketing activities within these stores, engage employees in wellness activities, and complete evaluation activities (NEMS, customer surveys, store owner interviews) within these stores in collaboration with WSU . Ongoing communications between the fellows and store owners/store staff will continue as we ramp up implementation efforts for the Healthy Food Marketing Activities in these stores. Outcome 2A To date two of the fellows have collaborated with HarborTown Market and Old Redford Market to host promotion events within the stores. Outcome 1B The Great Grocer Project provided COVID-19 safer grocery shopping training to all 64 of the Detroit grocery stores. According to staff surveys, 90%of respondents felt adequately prepared to serve their community during COVID.In these surveys about 2/3 of respondents indicated that trainings provided by GGP were slightly or very effective and about ¾ reported that COVID relief supplies were effective or very effective. Regarding sales of healthy foods, 35% of respondents reported that overall sales of healthy foods increased. Regarding sales of specific types of healthy foods, nearly 40% reported that fruits and vegetables were selling more, 44% reported healthy frozen foods (fruits, vegetables, healthy frozen dinners) were selling more, and about 37% reported healthy beverages were selling more. Additionally, customer surveys provided baseline data on consumption of fruits and vegetables and sugary drinks. Outcome 2B MOUs and Healthy Food Marketing intervention activities have begun being implemented in five stores. We are working to obtain MOUs from another five stores to implement the HFMI within those stores. The marketing materials (shelf tags, signage, one-pagers) were developed over the summer. Recipes were selected to be included in the marketing intervention and the HFMI page has been added to the DFPC website. WSU students will work with the community fellows to provide nutrition education to customers within the HFMI stores.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Gittelsohn, J., Kasprzak, C.M., Hill, A.B., Sundermeir, S.M., Laska, M.N., Dombrowski, R.D., DeAngelo, J., Odoms-Young, A., Leone, L.A. (2022). Increasing Healthy Food Access for Low-income Communities: Protocol of the Healthy Community Stores Case Study Project. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(2), 690. MDPI AG. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19020690.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Dombrowski, R. D., Hill, A. B., Bode, B., Knoff, K. A. G., Dastgerdizad, H., Kulik, N., Mallare, J., et al. (2022). Assessing the Influence of Food Insecurity and Retail Environments as a Proxy for Structural Racism on the COVID-19 Pandemic in an Urban Setting. Nutrients, 14(10), 2130. MDPI AG. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu14102130
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
John, S., Winkler, M. R., Kaur, R., DeAngelo, J., Hill, A. B., Sundermeir, S. M., Colon-Ramos, U., Leone, L.A.; Dombrowski, R.D.; Lewis, E.C.; and Gittelsohn, J. (2022). Balancing Mission and Margins: What Makes Healthy Community Food Stores Successful. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(14), 8470. MDPI AG. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148470.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Kaur, R., Winkler, M., John, S., DeAngelo, J., Dombrowski, R.D., Hickson, A., Sundermeir, S., et al. (2022). Forms of Community Engagement in Neighborhood Food Retail: Healthy Community Stores Case Study Project. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(12), 6986. MDPI AG. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19126986.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Hill, A. B., Kaur, R., Sundermeir, S. M., Kasprzak, C., Winkler, M., John, S., ... & Gittelsohn, J. (2022). Refining the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey (NEMS) for Healthy Community Stores: Adaptations to Capture Alternative Food Retailers and Align with Dietary Guidelines. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(19), 12875.
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Dastgerdizad, H. (2022). The Impact of Sugar Sweetened Beverage Marketing in Grocery Store Environments on the Nutritional Behavior of Young Immigrant Children: A Mixed-Methods Study. 2022. Doctoral Dissertation, Wayne State University. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Bode, B. and Dombrowski, R.D. (2021). A mixed-methods evaluation: A grocery safety kit to support employees of Detroits independently owned grocery stores during the COVID-19 pandemic. Oral presentation at the 2021 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, Denver, CO.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Bode, B., Dombrowski, R.D., Knoff, K.A.G., Kulik, N., Dastgerdizad, H., Blount-Dorn, K., Bynum, W. and Kramer, J. (2022). Consequences of the almighty dollar [store]: A Regional Nutrition Environment Survey. Oral presentation at the 2022 FADS: Research Workshop on Food Access at Dollar Stores, Boston, MA.
|
Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The Great Grocer Project (GGP) served 60 low-income families throughout the city of Detroit and reached up to 5,000 Detroit consumers through our efforts within 10 grocery stores. Detroit residents face a myriad of social, economic andhealth inequities as nearly 40% of families are food insecure and 90% of residents are minorities (79% African American). We have also collaborated with 25 store owners and staff through our training and promotion efforts who want to improve their stores. A large majority of store owners within Detroit also identify as chaldean and/or Arab and include many immigrant families. We held two virtual trainings with 6 store owners and will provide the recordings of the trainings to the additional 19 store owners who were unable to attend. We began efforts within 5 select stores to promote healthy food purchases and consumption to their 2,500 customers within the City of Detroit. Changes/Problems:We would like to transfer the funds for the CBO incentives ($10,500) and the graphic design consultant ($1400) to the subaward for Detroit Food Policy Council (Grand Total of $11,900). They have been working more closely with the CBOs through their efforts as well as the graphic designer as the dashboard/website is hosted on their organizational page. We also may need to rethink our planned expenditures for the trainings if the COVID pandemic prevents us from meeting in person in years two and three. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Staff from seven local CBOs were provided training in assessing their local grocery stores using the NEMS (Nutrition Environment Measures Survey) tool. Six store owners attended virtual trainings on improving healthy food sales within their stores and increasing their customer base. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?A public website/dashboard was launched with the list of the top 25 Great Grocers and their alignment to the 5 categories in March 2021. Several media outlets covered the story (4 tv and 5 print/internet media). The CBOs were also provided with this information and the two fellows we are working with this year from Church of the Messiah and the Joy Southfield Development Corportation utilized the Great Grocer list to select their collaborative stores (1 from each neighborhood) that they would work with throughout the year. We also presented the Great Grocer dashboard/website to the MOTION Coalition (Detroit childhood obesity prevention coalition) and the Detroit Food Policy Council membership. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan to implement the Healthy Food Marketing intervention with five of the 10 stores over the next several months. We also plan to engage an additional three fellows from the other CBOs to finalize the Toolkit and assist us in working to improve scores in the remaining stores. Training sessions will also continue to be provided virtually for the store owners and staff who wish to improve their scores.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Outcome 1A: All seven CBO partners were trained in completing the NEMS tool within their local, independent grocery stores. Outcome 1B: Six store owners attended the two virtual trainings that were provided on the project. The other 19 store owners were provided with the recording and information from the two virtual training sessions held.
Publications
|
|