Progress 05/01/22 to 04/30/23
Outputs
Target Audience:AA communities have trusted the 1890 institutions for more than a century. Therefore, 1890 institutions can play important roles in assisting AAs to combat diet-related disparities especially obesity and its related chronic diseases. However, compared to non-1890 institutions, 1890 institutions have limited resources in research, teaching and extension to address diet-related disparities, which lessens their impact on this critical issue in their own communities. For example, the research infrastructures at 1890 institutions are incomparable to those of their sister non-1890 universities within the same state, and none of the 1890 institutions have a strong program to prepare students to resolve issues affecting diet-related disparities through the intellectual exchange of academic excellence, knowledge and leadership. Additionally, the Cooperative Extension programs at 1890 institutions have been traditionally underfunded compared to their sister non-1890 universities. The release of this RFA to establish an 1890 Center of Excellence for Nutrition, Health, Wellness and Quality of Life is very timely and will strengthen the 1890 institution's capacities in research, teaching and extension to address diet-related health disparities in AAs. Louisiana, North Carolina and Alabama are among the top 10 most obese states for non-Hispanic black adults. Southern University (SU), North Carolina A&T State University (NCA&T), and Tuskegee University (TU) have complementary strengths in Research, Teaching and Extension. We are in a unique position to work as a team to establish a COE Nutrition Center, which supports the tripartite land-grant's mission of research, teaching and extension to contribute solutions to improve the health and well-being of underserved and minority populations. Changes/Problems:On March 31, 2023 we requested for change in project director (PD) from Dr. Fatemeh Malekian to Dr. Renita Marshall and USDA/NIFA approved the request on April 11, 2023. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? A grand total of thirty-nine African American students were funded and gained experience under COE including students at the three Universities (Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center, North Carolina A&T State University and Tuskegee University) and 4 pilot study collaborators which are supported by the COE. Among thirty-nine students, there were 6 graduate students working under the COE. All thirty-nine students have had the opportunity to participate in experiential learning activities. They participated in working with community members, gardening, nutrition education classes, cooking demonstration, data collection, entering data, assisting in preparing educational materials, sample preparation in the laboratory, working with instruments, attending professional meetings, introducing the Seminar Series speakers, and participating in all the activities under the COE. Two students, one from Southern University and one from Florida A & M participated in the internship under COE. Two students graduated under the COE, one from Southern University and one from Florida A& M University. One of the students who graduated is pursuing his MS in Agricultural Sciences at Florida A&M University. Two innovative and new technologies including: LLENA (AI), and Hydroponic gardening have been used under COE. Two courses or curricula including: one course by Dr. Oates at Tennessee State University (Pilot study collaborator) has been presented to the university officials for approval and the Sister's Together curriculum has been modified/enhanced to add food safety and MyPlate lessons. Six trainings or professional development have been offered including: training on the use of LLENA (AI) app., training on the use of hydroponic unit, training on using equipment for analysis of microbiome at NC A&T, food safety training, leadership training, and training students on data collection, entry, cleaning data, designing of educational materials and preparation on presentations. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Twenty-five presentations in the form of posters and oral have been conducted under the COE at different settings and events including: ARD/AEA annual meeting, LSU/SU joint annual conference, USDA webinar on food insecurity, presented at the Secretary of Agriculture's visit and meeting withSUAREC, the first USDA face to face meeting with community members to talk about Health Disparities under Agricultural Science Center of Excellence for Nutrition and Diet for Better Health (ASCEND for Better Health) and COE 2023 Health Disparities Symposium. Ten publications including: seven abstracts published in the COE 2023 Symposium proceeding, one manuscript by NC A&T, and two by West Virginia State University. These manuscripts have been submitted to different journals. They are being reviewed at the present time. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Research: Moving into year 3, we will continue to aim towards our targeted and untargeted metabolomics capacities. To continuously analyze the data generated from the untargeted metabolomic analysis of the fecal samples from lean and obese African Americans. To develop targeted GC/MS method analyzing short-chain fatty acids and its derivatives. To collect stool samples from lean and obese Caucasians. Teaching: We will keep working with the students in year 3 and expose them to as many scientific and extension initiatives about health inequalities as we can,allowing students to organize and manage community events, seminar series, and educational materials with a more hands-on approach. To support our students' professional progress, we will keep presenting new subjects and specialists. They will be able to gain knowledge about health disparities, finding solutions, and cutting-edge research and technology. Extension: We intend to keep up our efforts to increase participation and participant retention in order to get our Sister's Together program ready for the coming year. We have made the Program accessible to both men and women in order to promote a more diverse dialogue. Our project manager is looking for ways to make instruction more relatable for our nutrition education. The Sister's Together physical exercise component was successfully implemented into a raised bed community garden. The plans for the future also include keeping up the raised bed gardening. We intend to continue with the Scotlandville Community Garden's expansion. Following the installation of our walkway, we intend to add more park benches, a tiny library, and an agenda board so that participants are aware of upcoming neighborhood events. Moving forward we plan to launch the BRCommunity Fridge and Pantry, we have been establishing contacts and conducting test runs. Making it self-sufficient and run by volunteers and local leaders. One at each location in Scotlandville and N. Foster where we already have community gardens established.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1: Collection of stool samples from human volunteers: All three teams were successful in meeting and realigning our recruitment-related targets at the start of the new year. We began recruiting members of the Caucasian community in the second year.The stool collections were a collaboration between the three universities. We presently have 87 African American stool samples in total. Additionally, 10 samples from Caucasians were gathered by NC A&T. Development of the metabolomic platform at NC A&T. Instrument: We have purchased additional microbial metabolites to further build our in-house library. We currently have over 80 microbial metabolite standards. In addition, we are trying to purify microbial metabolites from human stool samples. Metabolomic training: We developed the metabolomic platform for analyzing stool samples, which include sample preparation, LC/MS analysis, and data interpretation and used our platform analyzed the stool samples that we collected from African Americans. Goal 2: Scholar recruitment and training: Each university has recruited three students. They obtained expertise via taking part in poster contests. Organizing and taking part in community activities, seminar series, research, creating teaching materials, and career development are all examples of additional student experiences. There were six posters created. One for the Center's executive summary and five student posters displayed at the COE Symposium. At our Center of Excellence Symposium for Promoting Healthy Communities, all students took part. In addition to learning how to conduct research in macrobiotic and extension activities, students were able to develop their public speaking skills. The Child Development Laboratory, one of the programs in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences at North Carolina A&T State University, hosted Homecoming and Halloween events where student scholars built a fictitious grocery shop called "Aggie Mart" as part of their research. Seminar Series titles and activities: Our virtual seminars for the 2022-2023 year consisted of the following dates: January 24th presented by Charlotta Carter - Barriers, Opportunities, and challenges for addressing diet related disparities. March 15th presented by Dr. Andrea Cherrington - What are health disparities and their impact on minority health. April 21st presented to Dr. Alice Ammerman - Social Entrepreneurship as a path to health and equity and social justice. May 2nd presented by Mrs. Alexis Motley - Community Engagement and its impact on diet related Disparities. On the website, five virtual seminars have been posted. A total of 11 virtual seminars were completed; the remaining ones were put online with the help of the communication team. Goal 3: Recruit and train participants: At Southern University, we have developed fliers posted on campus, social media, activity centers, word-of-mouth, etc. to recruit and train people. As a result, students consistently attend Sister's Together classes at all four sites. In total, 24 classes were held during the 2022-2023 school year. LLENA usage and retention in class are indications that student engagement was more mutually beneficial. This year, we have prepared and successfully delivered four classes. Classes, nutrition lectures, and food demos all took place at the same time. Our participants got hands-on training and got to take part in cooking demonstrations where they made things like fruit salsa and lettuce tacos. On average, each participant shed 4% of their body weight. Comparing pre- and post-test results, knowledge was increased by 30%. Create raised beds/ container gardens: At Tuskegee University, during the months of March and April 2023, planting materials were distributed to rural families residing in four Black Belt counties (Macon, Russell, Dallas, and Lowndes) in Alabama. These materials were distributed to the original group of participants who have agreed to remain in the project. The participants re-established their gardens using the containers and raised bed gardens that were established in the first planting season for the second planting season (Spring). A variety of spring crops were planted, they included tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplants, squash, zucchini, sweet potatoes and okra. Kale, romaine lettuce and Swiss chard were also added as the seedlings were available. Additionally, thirty-six (36) Blueberries plants were planted along with two grapes vines. The participants are excited and enthusiastic and have taken the initiative to add additional fruits and vegetables to their gardens not supplied by the project. During this harvesting season samples will be collected to determine selected nutrient profile of the plants grown under the current system compared to those purchased in the grocery stores. Furthermore, recruitment will continue through the summer in preparation for the fall garden planting season, which begins in mid-September. The aim is to enter additional Black Belt counties namely, Barbour, Pickens, Wilcox, Perry this will add an additional four counties which will bring the total to eight of the 12 Black Belt counties served by Tuskegee University, College of Agriculture, Environment and Nutrition Science. At Southern University, to encourage children's and adults' physical activity at the Scotlandville Community Park, we have created a walkway in addition to the continuation of our Scotlandville Garden. Under the Walmart grant, we also added two community gardens. In the 2022-2023 year, we executed 22 Saturday Garden Days as part of this project. Greens, chives, green onions, and cabbage harvested from the Scotlandville Community Garden were packaged and kept in the community center for use by participants as needed. From February to May, Westdale Middle School held 34 Monday and Thursday Garden Days wherethey harvested over 60 tomatoes, 40 bell peppers, and five (5) eggplants and distributed the fruit to the students, faculty, and staff. At Westdale Middle School, we added four raised beds and grew maize, bell peppers, tomatoes, various herbs, eggplants, and carrots. We also added rows where we grew tomatoes, bell peppers, maize, and watermelon. We added four more raised beds to our North Foster location, where we also planted corn, bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and okra. At the Community Garden, we put 15 fruit trees in total. Goal 4:Solicit applications from 1890s to conduct pilot projects via RFA which was released in July. All of the proposals were gathered, reviewed, and selected for funding by the 1890 Universities Foundation. They funded four collaborative proposals. The 1890 Universities Foundation is happy to have 1890 Universities participate in promoting financial prizes to support Centers of Excellence and other program initiatives. These 1890 Universities gain from the Foundation's fund development activities. Faculty at the following institutions have been awarded funding for four pilot projects. Dr. Ayesha Sarker, West Virginia State University - Yogurt Fortification with Green Papaya Powder and Banana Resistant Starch to Improve gut Microbiota and General Gastrointestinal Health of Appalachians. Dr. Juzhong Tan, Florida A&M University, Building Research and Education Capacity by Valorizing Muscadine Grape Pomace to Fight Health Disparities in Underserved Communities in the South. Dr. Samuel Besong, Delaware State University Assess the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Consumption Behavior and Develop Approaches to Improve Access to Healthful Foods among Low-income Families. Dr. Veronica Oates, from Tennessee State University.
Publications
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
www.suagcenter.com
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
www.suagcenter.com
Student abstracts for our center symposium
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Darwish, A., El-Sharkawy I., Tang, Chun., Rao, Q., and *Tan, J., 2023, Waste Byproduct Valorization: Investigation of the Effects of Fermented and Non-Fermented Muscadine Grape Pomace (MGP) infusion on the Anti-Cancer and Antioxidant Properties of Chocolates, Frontier in Nutrition.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Presentation on Food Justice Leadership Academy at the 2nd Annual Multistate Conference, May 18-19, 2022, https://www.multistateconference.com/2020-conference-rewind
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Progress 05/01/21 to 04/30/22
Outputs
Target Audience:AA communities have trusted the 1890 institutions for more than a century. Therefore, 1890 institutions can play important roles in assisting AAs to combat diet-related disparities especially obesity and its related chronic diseases. However, compared to non-1890 institutions, 1890 institutions have limited resources in research, teaching and extension to address diet-related disparities, which lessens their impact on this critical issue in their own communities. For example, the research infrastructures at 1890 institutions are incomparable to those of their sister non-1890 universities within the same state, and none of the 1890 institutions have a strong program to prepare students to resolve issues affecting diet-related disparities through the intellectual exchange of academic excellence, knowledge and leadership. Additionally, the Cooperative Extension programs at 1890 institutions have been traditionally underfunded compared to their sister non-1890 universities. The release of this RFA to establish an 1890 Center of Excellence for Nutrition, Health, Wellness and Quality of Life is very timely and will strengthen the 1890 institution's capacities in research, teaching and extension to address diet-related health disparities in AAs. Louisiana, North Carolina and Alabama are among the top 10 most obese states for non-Hispanic black adults. Southern University (SU), North Carolina A&T State University (NCA&T), and Tuskegee University (TU) have complementary strengths in Research, Teaching and Extension. We are in a unique position to work as a team to establish a COE Nutrition Center, which supports the tripartite land-grant's mission of research, teaching and extension to contribute solutions to improve the health and well-being of underserved and minority populations. Changes/Problems:We evaluate the progress of the program at every step. One of the changes that we made was because of the COVID-19 two newvariants spike and Hurrican Ida, we changed our nutrition education and physical activity classes from face to face to virtual. If participants are comfortable with face to face meetings we will conduct our classes accordingly. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?North Carolina A&T faculty and staff has attended training to set up the microbiota laboratory Project Director has attended a leadership training. Project coordinator has attended online training on nutrition and health disparities. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have been trying to set up everthing regarding The Center of Excellence and make the community know about who we are. This effort has been done through social media, TV (our symposium was announced on TV), our web site (estabilishing the web page), newsletters, personnel (Project Director) interviews by a national HBCU newspaper, fact sheets, flyers, presentations at the extension agents annual meeting and so on. Also we will seek if there are specific trainings that our students or faculty and staff can benefit fromsuch as leadership training, trainings for using new equipment (GC, DEXA, N2Analyzer) and others. We will encourage everyone in our team to take advantage of different virtual trainings that being offered as well. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Research: For Year 2, we will continue to build our targeted and untargeted metabolomics capacities. Following our current approaches, we plan to collect stool samples from 16 lean and 16 obese Caucasian subjects from each of the three universities. Then we will compare the metabolic differences between lean and obese Caucasians and between African Americans and Caucasians. Biomarkers between African Americans and Caucasians can be used for future studies to address health disparities. Biomarkers between lean and obese subjects can be used as targets to develop nutritional strategies to prevent or treat obesity. Teaching: For year 2 we will continue to work with our students and expose them to as many scientific and extension activities in the area of health disparities as possible. Our symposium series will continue with emerging topics and expert speakers in the areas of health disparities, possible solutions, and E-medical presence in the areas that are hard to reach. Extension: For year 2 the Sisters Together nutrition education will reach more people. Our hope is that the pandemic will be under control and more people will be willing to participate in the activities planned. The raised bed gardening also will be continued as it was planned for year one. These programs will be modified based on the evaluation results from year one and the pre and posttests. Also, the LLENA Appwill be used and the results from first year will show what kind of modification is needed in order to make the LLENA easier to use for our participants. Pilot Projects: We will continue funding pilot projects based on the merit and quality of the submitted proposals. The number of funded projects will be based on how many are following our RFA and if their project has an impact on the health and wellbeing of venerable population.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The PD, Co-PDs, and other key investigators from all three universities as well as the leaders from the 1890 foundation have a regular monthly meeting (the third Wednesday afternoon at 3:00pm EST via Zoom). During our monthly meeting, we discuss our progresses from each partners, identify potential hurdles, brainstorm solutions for identified hurdles, and describe plans for next month. The COE team created a diagram and logo that explained the COE dynamic. The external advisory board members with a very diverse background has been selected. The first EAB meeting is scheduled for October 11, 2021 via zoom and the second meeting in Feburary of 2022. By working with the Southern University's Communication team, a Center webpage (NHWQL Center ) was developed and is now active and available to all. This webpage includes background introductions of all the key investigators from each of the four partners and the EAB members, information regarding our scholar students, RFA for pilot projects etc. The COE leaders have participated in four interviews and a podcast bringing light to the COE team's achievements and progresses thus far. The COE team has also participated in meetings of other COE organizations at various Universities and USDA NIFA to become more in verse in the COE community. We also worked as a team for preparing and submitting Center quarterly reports, and an article which will be published in the ARD publication. In addition, The COE director and project coordinator made a presentation on the new dietary guidelines at the Extension agent Training Day. 1. Research:The NCAT's team wrote the SOP and recorded a video to demonstrate how to collect stool samples and shared them together with the food diary template and the list of items needing to be ordered with the Southern University and the Tuskegee teams. All three teams made recruitment flyers, protocols for safe interview practice during pandemic, and hired undergraduate students to assist the recruitments. As we actively recruit participants, we noticed that the recruitment process itself is a very good outreach activity to educate the public regarding healthy food and healthy living as well as nutrition associated health disparities. The campus community is also being engaged andwith this change, the number of participants for theproject will be met. Instrument: The new high-resolution GC/MS purchased by NCAT using institutional fund was installed in September. Because of the pandemic, the delivery and installation of this state-of-art instrument for metabolomics was significantly delayed. Dr. Sang's lab at NCAT is testing this instrument. After the Sang lab gets familiar with this instrument, the field engineer from Thermo will provide onsite training in November. 2. Teaching:Scholar recruitment and training have been successful. Three students from each university have been recruited. All students will be able to participate in the first symposium. We are planning to let students be as much as possible involved in the preparation of the symposia, introducing the speakers, asking questionsetc. so they really feel that they are a very important part of the program. The titles and topics have been finalized. The first presentation was on October 6 at 5:30 pm via zoom with speaker Dr. Ronald Andrews. The presentation was a great success and a number of positive feedbacks were received from the participants. The video has been placed on the COE web page. the second presentation was conducted with Dr. James Shikany as a presenter and the third presentation was also done in the format of panel discussion to inform communities about what is being done at the three universities to combat diet related disparities. Participants from the Advisory Board have suggested speakers for the remainder of the Series that are under consideration. 3. Extension: The project coordinator at Southern University has been recruiting participants to attendthe Sisters Together nutrition education intervention by posting developed flyers (2) on campus, social media, churches, activity centers, word of mouth etc. Despite the weather condition in Baton Rouge we are seeing a consistent number of participants in each research group. We have planned and conducted nutrition education and physical activity classes twice a month. 5 classes have been conducted for the Baton Rouge location. 5 classes have been conducted for the Opelousas location. Due to unforeseen inclement weather our extension agents have evolved the program to adapt to circumstances.Tuskegee University (TU) has identified three of the five counties to established the container gardens and identified ten (10) participants from one (1) of the three counties and have been planting and harvesting vegetables. TU personnel have been working with a community -based organization (EATSouth), a grass root farmer and Cooperative Extension to establish fall vegetable gardens, sourced container and raised beds. They are in the process of securing/purchasing the materials. Crops to be planted during this season are: collard greens, turnips, spinach, and Swiss chard greens, consistent with the cultural dynamics, in regards to commonly consumed vegetables by this population group. Evaluation is based on the number of crops planted, amount harvested in pounds, duration of the crops and frequency of consumption and the amount consumed at each setting. The evaluation will be conducted during the planting, growing and reaping season to assess the impact/effectiveness on making Fruits & Vegetables Available for ALL. Fruit trees and other types of vegetables will be planted in the next growing season. We Share experiences of existing technologies through COE symposium series and other networks. The PD and Project Coordinator have participated and presented at the extension annual meeting covering the updated Dietary Guidelines and explained how Center of Excellence Program (Sister's Together, Research Study, and LLENA app) are correlated. The COE team have been meeting with consultant of the app LLENA at weekly scheduled meetings and on call opportunities to discuss the structure of use for the program. COE team and participants in Sister's Together program have access to LLENA app that promotes a healthy dietary pattern. The Southern University COE team was able to download the soft version of the app to understand how to utilize the features. The app has been presented at the first Sister's Together training. Students in our scholar program and also student workers will be able to use this app with participants in order to promote healthy eating as ambassadors on campus. 4. Pilot program:The Center solicited applications from 1890s to conduct pilot projects via the RFA, which opened in late July and closed in early September. The 1890 Universities Foundation worked with the Center leadership team to design the RFA. It is also circulated it to the 1890 system and answered questions from faculty when the RFA was open. The Foundation also managed the review process, as it mobilized the review panel. All reviews were submitted by September 27th. The Foundation completed the review process. Early notification was sent to applicants during the week of October 11th. The Foundation has developed sub award packets for those projects that are recommended for funding and the estimated timeline for the dissemination of the packets is two weeks from the date of early notification. Four Research projects has been identified and received funding. Evaluation:Evaluation is an ongoing activity on all the aspects of project being evaluated. Minor changes have been made. Example, because of Hurricane Ida we change conducting educational classes for nutrition and physical activity to Virtual instead of face to face.
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Fact sheet "What your Gut says about your Health" posted on www.suagcenter.com under the COE tab.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
A fact sheet on Glycemic Index which is on www.suagcenter.com under Center of Excellence
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
An article about COE was published in Association of Research Directors newsletter titled: Southern University progresses on health/wellness center.
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
COE website has been established and is available to all. www.suagcenter.com/coe
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Southern University Progresses on Health/Wellness center, www.umes.edu/ard
October 2021,vol.12, issue 10
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