Progress 03/01/24 to 02/28/25
Outputs
Target Audience: The target audience for this project is Laurel County, Kentucky and its residents. Laurel County is a rural Appalachian community that is socioeconomically disadvantaged and geographically isolated. We are focusing on adults in this community for interventions based on increasing fruit and vegetable consumption and improving food security. Within the county, our Community Advisory Board identified primary target audiences including low-income households, relatives raising children and working families. Throughout the year 2024 we have worked with the Cooperative Extension to host 13 households in the Cook Together, Eat Togher program; worked with a lower-income housing complex and childcare facilities (i.e., HeadStart) to implement raised bed gardens. The control community for this project is Pike County, Kentucky, which is also a rural Appalachian community that is socioeconomically disadvantaged and geographically isolated. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? We convey our project results, as well as the research process, to the Community Advisory Board (CAB) members during our meetings, held every two months. The meetings alternate between virtual and in-person, which are held at the Laurel County Cooperative Extension office. Investigators have presented the Laurel HARVEST work at the international conference Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior with peers. The local newspaper, London/Laurel County Sentinel-Echo published an article about Laurel HARVEST in October, 2024. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Several of our programs will be continuing as well as starting new projects. The raised bed gardens we developed this year will continue through next year along with a new partnership with a Laurel County high school FFA program to grow vegetable seedlings for planting. We will also continue to make connections between the lower-income target population and resources for consumption of fruits and vegetables. Cook Together, Eat Together classes will also continue with at least 4 rounds throughout the year. We will also be collecting follow-up data on the target population cohort and the control community to measure the impact of our interventions. Once data collection is completed, we look forward to using the longitudinal data for publication. Additionally, started in 2024 were mini-grant opportuntities for the local community to submit ideas related tot he Laurel HARVEST obejctives. In 2025 we will be working to fund interventions or assistance with programs to increase fruit and vegetable consumption and reduce food insecurity. Applications for these grants are out not and expected to be submitted by the end of February 2025.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Throughout the past year we've made strong progress with our project objectives. We've continued working and meeting with our Community Advisory Board (CAB) members to maintain a reciprocal relationship in the research process and move our objectives forward. First, we've continued to partner with Cooperative Extension in Laurel County to offer 4 more rounds of Cook Together, Eat Together (CTET) with an emphasis on recruiting lower income participants (adapted hybrid 6-week program focused on budget friendly meal prep skills for families). Likewise, we've made headway on our food systems intervention to include partnerships with one lower income 144-unit apartment complex and two childcare facilities to develop raised bed gardens for residents and participants. Based on subjective, preliminary feedback from the apartment complex property manager and the childcare staff, the raised beds have been accepted very well at their locations. Other community partnerships were established, including one between a CAB member and a large local church garden to provide fresh vegetables to a group of senior citizens. In an effort to promote sustainability of the food insecurity interventions we've initiated, as well as soliciting ideas for other interventions, we have provided several presentations to the Laurel County Extension's Master Gardener programs as an option in fulfilling their required volunteer hours.?
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Barr-Porter, Makenzie, et al. "Multi-Level Intervention Planning Laurel HARVEST: Helping Appalachia Restore a Vibrant Food Environment for Self-Sufficiency Together." Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 56.8 (2024): S96.
- Type:
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2025
Citation:
Luecking, C.T.; Barr-Porter, M.; Brewer, D.; Cardarelli, K.M. Community-Engaged Approach to Improve Food Access and Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables in a Rural Appalachian Community. Nutrients 2025, 17, 431. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17030431
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Barr-Porter ML, Mangus L, Luecking C, Slone S, Swanson M, Cardarelli KM. Multi-Level Intervention Planning Laurel HARVEST: Helping Appalachia Restore a Vibrant Food Environment for Self Sufficiency Together. USDA AFRI Project Directors Meeting Panel. Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior Annual Meeting. August 1, 2024. Knoxville, TN.
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Progress 03/01/23 to 02/29/24
Outputs
Target Audience:Our project's target audience includes low-income households, relatives raising children and working families. These are all groups that our community advisory board has suggested that we focus on for Laurel Harvest. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Co-project directors were able to attend the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior meeting in July 2023, where Dr. Cardarelli presented a poster on the Laurel Harvest project. Additionally, Dr. Cardarelli presented on Laurel Harvest at the American Public Health Association meeting in November 2023. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We regularly provide updates to our community advisory board members during our in-person meetings, held at the Extension office. We also used Facebook as a tool to disseminate information about Cook Together, Eat Together and other Extension nutrition-related tools and resources. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period, we plan to continue our cooking self efficacy program (Cook Together, Eat Together) with additional cohorts. We also plan to launch our food system interventions, in collaboration with Head Start and Cooperative Extension. We also plan to explore partners for the food system interventions that includes food pantries and the health department. We plan to continue meeting regularly with the community advisory board to obtain input and provide updates. Lastly, we plan to begin preparing scholarly products (such as manuscripts) about our work to disseminate to the scientific community.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We are pleased to share several accomplishments of Laurel Harvest in the last year of the project period. First, we have assembled a strong community advisory board, with broad representation from multiple stakeholders, including farmers, food pantry and church representatives, health department staff and community leaders. This group advised investigators multiple times during the project period on topics such as who to target, how to engage with our target population and which interventions to develop and/or adapt. Second, we partnered with the Cooperative Extension Service on adapting, implementing and evaluating Cook Together, Eat Together (CTET)- a multiweek intervention focused on enhancing self efficacy to prepare healthy meals. We implemented three cohorts of CTET in the last year and collected pre- and post-intervention data. Early interpretation of these data seem to suggest improvements in participants' ability to prepare nutritious meals. Lastly, we engaged multiple partners to plan for implementation of a food system intervention.
Publications
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Progress 03/01/22 to 02/28/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project is Laurel County, Kentucky. This is a rural Appalachian community that is socioeconomically disadvantaged and geographically isolated. We are focusing on adults in this community for interventions. The control community for this project is Pike County, Kentucky, which is also a rural Appalachian community that is socioeconomically disadvantaged and geographically isolated. Changes/Problems:Because of the community-engaged nature of the project, we must be open to changing potential interventions if community partners are not eager to collaborate. For example, we had planned to implement an intervention at the local farmers market this summer. However, we learned that the number of growers who participate in the farmers market is declining, and the intervention did not align well with the manager's priorities. Our seasoned team is accustomed to modifying intervention plans so as to assure community support for project activities. Data collection for the long-term outcome evaluation is progressing slower than anticipated due in part to when recruitment began. Community partners report that the population is not accustomed to engaging many activities outside of the home during the winter months. We expect there to be more opportunities for recruitment as the number of events and programs increase in the spring and summer. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?At this time, we do not yet have results. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan to continue our collaboration with the CAB and community partners to identify a food systems intervention that aims to increase access to healthy food in Laurel County. We have already identified several potential interventions and are vetting these program ideas with our community partners. We plan to implement 2-3 rounds of the Cook Together, Eat Together program, and conduct a program evaluation with program participants to assess program effectiveness for increasing participant's self-efficacy and confidence for healthy eating. We aim to recruit 10 caregivers of children from households with lower incomes for each round of the program. We plan to continue engaging with the CAB regularly to not only provide project updates but also to obtain input on additional interventions for implementation yet to be identified. The CAB has critical feedback for us at each step of the project, and we expect our project's focus to continue developing as we engage community partners on this work.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Health inequities between rural and urban communities have grown in recent decades, and inequities in obesity and related chronic diseases are particularly prevalent in rural communities. Residing in rural areas is associated with increased access to convenience or fast food options compounded with factors of lower education and nutrition skills, income, or transportation. These challenges are abundant in Appalachian Kentucky, and there is a need to target both social and built environmental factors in order to improve nutritional health outcomes. For the Cook Together, Eat Together intervention, the target audience is adults who are caregivers of children (aged 4-18), as the program uses a multigenerational approach. Our recruitment efforts have focused on enrolling households with lower incomes for the intervention. Created a community advisory board (CAB) comprised of various community members who have a range of knowledge and/or experience with nutrition, education, horticulture, local food and community resources among other topics. Members include extension council members, food bank & pantries, the local health department, school resources center, farmers, & faith communities. Reviewed preliminary data with the CAB to identify potential interventions to implement in the county. This resulted in identification of the Cook Together, Eat Together intervention. Collaborated with the Family & Consumer Sciences Extension agent in the county to modify this evidence-based program to fit local preferences for implementation. Enrolled 25 participants in our long-term outcome evaluation in Laurel County. Because this project uses a community-based participatory research approach, ongoing, high quality engagement with the community is critical. To assess this commitment, we are conducting a process evaluation which includes the ongoing relationship building and involvement of the CAB. We completed baseline assessment of the CAB for the process evaluation. Evaluation data collection is ongoing at this time, so no summary results are available. For the process evaluation, we conducted a baseline survey on CAB members' experience and quality of relationship with the researchers. Thirteen CAB members completed the survey, including 10 females and 2 males ranging in age from 42-70 (median age 60). Overall, CAB members agreed that trust had been built among the group, their opinions were valued and listened to, and the project was building on the current strengths and resources within the community. Additionally, almost all CAB members reported talking about the project outside of our meetings, suggesting high CAB-member engagement with the work.
Publications
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