Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The meeting was held in the Q Hotel and Spa in Kansas City, MO from November 14-15th. Hosted by Gerad Middendorf. The meeting began with a welcome to KC statement and a brief overview of the agenda for the next 2 days. Our USDA project advisor provided comments regarding the importance of having an annual reports filled with accomplishments and encouraged us to get off our duffs and make info available to yours truly. He also emphasized the importance of getting funding for group research projects, reminding us that there are foundations that might support our work. Several of us will be looking into this (Virginie and Alex). Cindy Reeves then spoke of us via conference call. Spoke a little about funding opportunities but unit the farm bill is passed, it is difficult for us to know what the resources are. However, she suggested last years RFAs and their due dates and assume they will the same this year. Noted that if we wait till official announcements come out, we will only have a month to submit something. [As we are a multistate project, we need more time to jointly produce a proposal and get it vetted through each of our respective offices that deal with external research.] Cindy did mention something about behavioral research. A joint effort between the rural development centers and SAMHSA. Next was the annual ritual of sharing the activities and achievements of members of the group over the past year. 1. Mar Hendrickson U of Missouri, Rural Sociology and Extension. Spoke about recent findings regarding food access between those who shop for local food and those who shop for foods based on convenience. Hard to distinguish between these two groups. Found that some people were getting their food from friends and neighbors; others were buying foods sold by co-workers (e.g. , eggs). Recent arrivals in a community do not have a network established in their new area of residence. She also found a distinction between rural and urban shoppers: urban shoppers were motivated by health and a sense of community. Rural shoppers were more individualistic. See her website Food Circles Networking Project: Connecting Farmers, Consumers, and Communities. Chery Smith. Ongoing project involves children taking pictures of their food environment. One example are photos of the inside of refrigerators at home. Studying food insecurity among the Hmong in the Twin Cities. Also interested in ascertaining the difference between lean/normal weight youth versus those who are overweight who live in the same food environment. The research question deals with why one group in obese and the other is not. One finding is that children from the obese group are more likely to be emotional eaters (e.g., driven to eat because are happy, are sad). The lean/normal kids were found to be more knowledgeable about food and the health. Also looking at Chinese migrants within China and their food access. Lindsay Hadlock. Extension South Dakota State U. Working with 4 food policy councils in 6 states. Intervention designed to help them become better planners. Food pantry choice across all food groups. Ardy Gillespie. Talks about potential research. Family decision making. Mentions that she continues to work in this area. Building capacity for decision making. Emphasizes collaborative work and a book chapter she has written about this. Virginie Zoumenou. Discussion of her pre-school project that deals with teaching children about healthy food. Children learn and share. Uses stories to get across ideas. The stories deal with heal and are accompanied with visuals. Children learn the names of vegetables. Stories are also used to write songs that deal with things such as consuming too much soda, salt, etc. Parents visit the classroom once a month. Gardening takes place as well with the assistance of a master gardener and a local farmer. The children eat lunch with their respective teachers; the effect of this varies by teacher. The part of the study involves measurement of plate waste. Recent data indicate that children like straw berries, clementine, broccoli, and corn. Consumption of these has increased; now above the guidelines. Will next expand the study to parents with an interest in what impacts childrens request for specific foods has on parents procuring those foods. Also discusses the importance of expanding the present intervention/research into rural areas. Sandy Rikoon listed a number of accomplishments. With apologies I got distracted and have no notes on the remaining group members activities for the past year. So much for multitasking. Election of officers. Since our bylaws call for two-year terms, there were no elections. Site of next years meeting: Several suggestion were made including the University of Illinois, Iowa State, and the University of Oklahoma. This was not finalized. Guest Speaker: Taryn Gliden from the Harvest organization. Works on the nutrition and pantry side of the organization. Teaches at food pantries about how to prepare food in 2-hour blocks. This includes preparing both meat and vegetables. Also promotes Project Strength: physical activity and health eating away from home. Participants are asked to set goals for each week. Incentives of a free bag of groceries. 85% retention in the programs. Usually 10-20 people in attendance. Also have trained educators from the community. Kids in the Kitchen for children 5-18 years of age. Use a cookbook designed for children; taught during classes as well as after school. Health Ambassadors: goal  receive > 150,000 pounds of vegetables. Need this to have enough in order to teach people how to prepare vegetables. Nutrition department provides recipes, demos, storing, etc. at the pantries. Do tastings in the pantry waiting room. Makes them more willing to eat things like brown rice. www.harvester.org Notes that they partner with Beans and Greens. See KC Community Gardens website and partner with Back Snack; Kids Café. Classes at soup kitchens; have persuaded local chefs to teach things like how to use a knife in the kitchen. We then discussed future projects. It was mentioned that McIntosh, smith and Zoumou plan to submit a proposal that was turned down several years ago. We will probably revise and expand this proposal. A second idea was put forward with the idea of studying food pantries. It was noted we know a lot about food banks but less about the organizational structure and functioning of pantries. Would also examine leadership variables. Suggestion that this research be done using focus groups. Each state rep could collect data from their state, using a common instrument, and then pool the results. Other members of the group wanted to include participants in terms of the stress they experience because they have to sue a food pantry. Concerns about the impact on child development. Part of the reasoning for studying these organizations is because unlike many food banks, pantries rarely have a plan. We could help them develop plans and perhaps persuade more of them to provide nutrition lessons. Second day of the meeting Field trips were taken to community gardens. We then discussed where to hold next years meetings. Several sites were mentioned as possibilities including Iowa State University. New officers were not chosen as our by-laws call for 2 years of service in these positions. The current officers are only half-way through their terms. We then returned to the discussion of our contemplated Pantry Study. Again organizational structure mentioned as was ideology. 2. Delivery, capacity, infrastructure: e.g., refrigerators. This should be quantitative data. 3. Health and well-being of clients (qualitative). Part of the reasoning for studying these organizations is because unlike many food banks, pantries rarely have a plan. We could help them develop plans and perhaps persuade more of them to provide nutrition lessons. Sandy Rikoon and Alex McIntosh volunteered to review the literature on pantries and related topics.

Short-term Outcomes: The "Texas Grow, Eat, Go" project funded by USDA-NIFA, exposed 734 3rd grade students in 16 elementary schools located in 4 regions of Texas to the Junior Master Gardener curriculum. Developing school gardens was part of the curriculum. The results of exposure to the lessons and creating the school garden include a significant increase in vegetable consumption, decline in time spend watching television and playing video games. In some schools there were slight but significant declines in body mass index scores. The "Food Systems Approaches to Addressing Obesity Among Food Pantry Clients in Missouri" project (USDA-AFRI) identified lack of availability of fruits and vegetables in food pantries found in Missouri. Produced the Missouri Hunger Atlas, which provides important information to the Missouri legislature on food insecurity and the relative performance of public and private programs the deal with hunger in the state.

Thomas, L & WA McIntosh. 2013. It Just Tastes Better When Its in Season. Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition 8(1):61-72. Howard, P & D Jaffee. 2013. Tensions between firm size and sustainability goals: Fair trade coffee in the United States, Sustainability 5(1):72-89. Rickelle, R & C. Smith. 2013. Correlates of energy intake and body mass intake of homeless children in Minnesota. Childhood Obesity 9(3):240-251. Rustad, C. & C. Smith. 2013. A short-term nutrition intervention utilizing education on a comprehensive array of nutrition and health topics favorably changes knowledge and behavior in low-income women. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 45(6):490-498. Gillespie, Ardyth M.H. and Guan-Jen Sung. 2013. Enhancing Interdisciplinary Communication: Collaborative Engaged Research on Food Systems for Health and Well-Being, in Enhancing Communication and Collaboration in Interdisciplinary Research. . Editors, Michael O'Rourke, Stephen Crowley, Sanford D. Eigenbrode, and J. D. Wulfhorst, Sage publications. Vancil, A., S. Rikoon, M. Foulkes, C. Heflin, J. Hermsen, and N. Raedeke. Regional Profile of Missouri Food Pantry Clients and Households. Truman Policy Research Report 04-2013. Columbia, MO: Institute of Public Policy, Harry S Truman School of Public Affairs, University of Missouri, 2013. Rikoon, J., Foulkes, M., Hermsen, J., and Raedeke, M. A Food Systems Approach to Addressing Obesity among Food Pantry Clients in Missouri. USDA/NIFA Project Directors Workshop, Human Nutrition and Obesity Program, Proceedings, pp. 92-95. Washington, DC: USDA, 2013. Cafer, A., Dawdy, J., M. Foulkes, C. Heflin, J. Hermsen, J. Lucht, N. Raedeke, and J.S. Rikoon. 2013 Missouri Hunger Atlas. Columbia, MO: Interdisciplinary Center for Food Security, 2013. Also available at: http://foodsecurity.missouri.edu)