Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Virginie  Zoumenou and Hector Santiago presented the results of the survey. Comments and inputs included the

following:

• In order to help members to participate in person, the Annual Meetingtime will rotate between Spring
• and  Fall (one year Spring, One year Fall etc.).

2-      The annual meeting will  also include an online participation.

• For a better collaboration and better networking, we decided to create a website. This website will include
• the NC1196 information and the members’ information.

4-      Christine Cooker, Maya Vadiveloo, Melissa Prescott, and Bhagyashree Katare will take the lead on

the website development. Christine and her team will send to the group the website information.

5-      For better collaboration, it was suggested to organize other meetings between annual meetings.

6-      Collaboration on group projects or on publications were suggested.  

Annual meeting in Texas

• The 2019 annual meetingwill be at College Station TX in Fall
• The meetingin Texas will focus on the new proposal

·         We discussed the expectations from each member for providing material for the new proposal.

       *Possible dates for spoke of.

Visits 

We visited to the Seeds of Change that produces plant foods that grow in verticle tubes; the workers were adolescents and young adults who were home less.

As part of the Association for the Study of Food and Society, we made presents of our research and other activities

• Panel Presentations:

On Thursday, we had two successful panels. The audience was very interested by each panel discussion. It was very interesting

• Roundtable Discussion:

We had the opportunity to provide the audience with a brief overview of NC1196 objectives. We also had the

opportunity to learn about other NC USDA research groups present in the audience. We discussed successes

 and challenges related to NC USDA research groups.  We also shared strategies to overcome some challenges.

 Lessons learned from the roundtable discussion: more networking, group projects, and publications will

Strengthen the group.

Some participants were interested in joining the NC1196 group.  

Virginie Zoumenou project the Well Connected Communities (WCC) Project aimed to engage three communities (Fruitland, Pocomoke, and Princess Anne-Eden) in implementing a culture of health initiative on the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland. Approximately a total of 250 youth, 50 adults, 12 community based organizations, seven businesses, and eight government agencies were involved in the project on the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland.  Under youth and adults leadership, three projects were implemented: “Healthy Street -Healthy Me”, “Make Fruits Available for All”, and “Reading and Group Therapy Garden”.  Approximately, five mini-orchards, including three at three Head Start Centers, were developed. The mini-orchards changed the educational environment at the selected Head Start Centers. In addition, through the collaborative effort of the WCC project, a farmers’ market policy was voted and passed in Fruitland, one of the selected communities.

Matt R. Raven and others finished a study on the findings from survey of livestock producers in Michigan that sought to better understand their interest and capacity to serve demands for local meat products. The data provides insights into trends in production, processing, and marketing that may be helpful in identifying producer needs and strategic planning, including. This is the report: Barry, Judith, Bielaczyc, Noel, Heisler, Daniell, Henne, Rebecca, Hembroff, Larry, Raven, Matt R., Reed, Katherine, Cotter, Maria, and Howell, Kera. (2018). Michigan Livestock Producer Capacity Assessment Final Report. East Lansing, MI. Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems.

 Matt R. Raven also reported that he also worked with the Savory Institute in the development of their Ecological Outcomes Verification (EOV) Program. EOV is an outcomes-based program that verifies if land is regenerating. It is part of Savory’s Land2Market program which provides a label for meat, dairy, leather or wool that is grown on land verified to be regenerating in terms of ecosystems services (water cycle, mineral cycle, energy cycle and bio-diversity). This is the first outcomes based (rather than process based like USDA Organic) that is being used for labeling and marketing purposes on food and fiber. Currently it is in beta testing and slated to be implemented in the first quarter of 2020.

Melissa Pflugh Prescott reported that she and her colleauges had enrolled and collected baseline data from five schools in rural Illinois for interventions to promote improved diet quality and reduced food waste. 

Alex McIntosh, who had worked on the development of the Texas Grow Eat Go Project, reported that four schools in San Antonio Texas adopted the cirriculum from the Texas Grow Eat Go Program.

Cathrine Brinkley made a talk from her journal article: “If you Build it with them, they will come”: What makes a supermarket intervention successful in a food desert?. Journal of Public Affairs, e1863. She also noted that she submitted a manuscript to the California Journal of Public Health reviewing street food policies. 

 James Rikoon and colleagues received the grant 2020 Missouri Food Pantry Client Survey funded by Funding Agency: Feeding Missouri for 2019-2020 and with a Project Period: 2019-2021  and an award of $249.592.          

Katare, B. and Chakrovorty, S., 2019. Association between environmental factors and BMI:evidence from recent immigrants fromdeveloping countries. Journal of Health, Population and  Nutrition, 38(1), p.15.

Serebrennikov, D., Katare, B., Kirkham, L. and Schmitt, S., 2020. Effect of classroom intervention on student food selection andplate waste: Evidence from a randomized control trial. PloS one, 15(1), p.e0226181.

Stephenson, R. C., Coker, C. E., Posadas, B. C., Bachman, G. R., Harkess, R. L., Admczyk, J. J. (in press).  Economic effect of insectpest management strategies on small scale tomato production in Mississippi.  HortTechnology. 

Bachman, G. R., Broderick, S. R., Coker, C. E., Denny, G. C., Stafne, E. T. (2019). 2019 Mississippi Medallion Plants. MississippiState University Extension Publication, P3318, 4.

Miller, Michael, Gerad Middendorf, Spencer Wood, Sonya Lutter, Scott Jones, and Brian Lindshield. 2019. “Food Insecurity and Assistance on Campus: A Survey of the Student Body.” Online Journal of Rural Research and Policy Vol. 14:2  https://doi.org/10.4148/1936-0487.1097

Yarcusko, E., Slesnick, N., & Hatsu, I. (2019). Food Sources for Homeless Youth: An Evaluation of Food Availability at a Homeless Youth Drop-In Center. Journal of nutrition education and behavior, 51(1), 91-95.

Hatsu, I., Gunther, C., Hade, E., Vandergriff, S., Slesnick, N., Williams, R., ... & Kennel, J. (2019). Unaccompanied homeless youth have extremely poor diet quality and nutritional status. International journal of adolescence and youth, 24(3), 319-332.