Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The overall goal of this project is to accelerate meeting national food loss and waste reduction targets by engaging underrepresented young adults, private and public sectors, and households in improving nutrition security through household food waste reduction. We will establish the Center for Food Conservation and Waste Reduction to meet the following objectives: 1) use Food Literacy, Environment, and Waste (FLEW) assessment to establish a baseline measure of food literacy and identify behavioral strategies to promote food conservation and reduce waste; 2) engage the next generation in food loss and waste reduction in developing a National Extension Food Loss and Waste Strategy that is in alignment with Extension's National Framework for Health Equity by centering on nutrition security and co-created citizen science; 3) address food literacy gaps and build conservation engagement to reduce household food waste and promote nutrition security, health equity, and resilience through an online resource hub and co-created promotional campaign; 4) assess the interrelationship between food conservation and waste, food and nutrition security, healthy food programs and practices, and environmental impacts. Our project will fill a critical gap by using citizen science to co-create a shared understanding of feasible, culturally appropriate strategies to improve food literacy and reduce household food waste. Further, our project will empower households to be more resilient and nutrition secure and foster an early appreciation for food conservation and waste reduction. Our ultimate outcome will be advancing health equity and ameliorating climate change through improved nutrition security and household food waste reduction.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The overall goal of this project is to accelerate meeting national food loss and waste (FLW) reduction targets by engaging underrepresented young adults, the private and public sectors, and households in improving nutrition security through household food waste reduction. We will establish the Center for Food Conservation and Waste Reduction at Purdue University to meet the following objectives:Objective 1: Use the Food Literacy, Environment, and Waste (FLEW) assessment to establish a baseline measure of food literacy and identify behavioral strategies to promote food conservation and reduce household food waste. (Research)Objective 2: Engage the next generation in food loss and waste reduction in developing a National Extension Food Loss and Waste Strategy that is in alignment with Extension's National Framework for Health Equity by centering on nutrition security and co-created citizen science. (Extension)Objective 3: In collaboration with key stakeholders and consumers, address food literacy gaps and build conservation engagement to reduce household food waste and promote nutrition security, health equity, and resilience through an interactive, online resource hub and co-created promotional campaign. (Extension)Objective 4: Assess the interrelationship between food conservation and waste, food and nutrition security, healthy food programs and practices, and environmental impacts. (Research and Extension)
Project Methods
We will utilize a mixed-methods approach to accomplish the objectives of this grant. This will include quantitative analysis of baseline data from the FLEW assessment in communities as well as qualitative analysis of insights generated in our food equity summits and land grant listening sessions. We will also evaluate our social marketing campaign using relevant metrics (e.g., views, downloads, etc.).