Annie Hardison-Moody, PhD

The purpose of the SNAP-Education grant delivered by the Steps to Health team is to deliver nutrition and physical activity education to limited resource audience at the individual level and provide multi-level strategies/interventions to promote policy, systems, and environmental change across North Carolina, with 100 counties potentially receiving high levels of intervention.

With economists predicting that unemployment may increase to 20% or higher, food insecurity rates will rise sharply, to higher levels than many people have seen in their lifetimes. Food shortages will reach people who were previously able to avoid them. Already, an NSF-funded national survey conducted in late March 2020 found that 38.3% of respondents reported moderate to high levels of food insecurity.4 As unemployment continues to increase, we can expect this number to climb even higher. While we can predict that food insecurity will increase, we do not know what shape food insecurity will take������������������where it is mostly likely to occur, what types of households and communities are best equipped to avoid it, and why. Food insecurity rates will rise faster in some places and remain more stable in others. How do variations in policy responses to COVID-19 and social context shape families������������������ access to food and their ability to prevent or cope with food insecurity? To answer this question, we will conduct semi-structured interviews and collect photovoice data with a diverse group of families in four U.S. states, in order to better understand how families������������������ food practices have shifted as a result of COVID-19 and identify the processes that buffer some families from food insecurity but not others.

As the first longitudinal child-centered study of child food insecurity, this project will contribute to a better understanding of the short- and long-term consequences of and processes that drive childhood food insecurity. This project analyzes data collected over a five-year period with 124 mother-child dyads in low-income households in North Carolina. The project uses a variety of methods (interviews, surveys, food recalls, and ethnographic observations) and includes interviews with both mothers and children (ages 7-13). The project makes two unique contributions. First, as a longitudinal study, it investigates how food insecurity and children������������������s well-being are linked to broader factors like economic inequality, stress, and food environments. Second, by allowing children to report directly on their experiences with food insecurity, this project allows us to identify key differences in parents������������������ and children������������������s perceptions of household food insecurity.

To increase physical activity among African Americans and low-income residents in Edgecombe County, NC State and Edgecombe County Cooperative Extension will 1) increase the number and promotion of shared use policies in community organizations, 2) connect and promote vital physical activity resources through wayfinding and signage, 3) improve connectivity between places people live, learn, work, play and pray through walking and recreation space audits, 4) support and promote walking and biking to and during school, and 5) partner with Recreation Resources Service (RRS), to create and implement a county park and recreation master plan.

The purpose of the SNAP-Education grant is to deliver nutrition and physical activity education to limited resource audience at the individual level and provide multi-level strategies/interventions to promote policy, systems, and environmental change across North Carolina, with 100 counties potentially receiving high levels of intervention.

The Orange County Partnership for Young Children seeks a standard grant. All farmers at Transplanting Traditions Community Farm are limited resource and socially disadvantaged refugee farmers. The project goals are as follows: 1) Increase the number of refugee farmers operating farm businesses and providing food for the piedmont of N.C. foodshed. 2) Increase marketing opportunities and marketing independence for beginning, intermediate and refugee farmers enrolled in TTCF������������������s incubator program 3) Expand the current incubator training program's impact and effectiveness by increasing agricultural trainings to meet the multi-tiered needs of three different farmer levels: beginning, intermediate and advanced. NC State professors Dr. Dara Bloom and Dr. Annie Hardison-Moody will perform an external evaluation of the program.

The purpose of this grant is to deliver nutrition and physical activity education to limited resource audience at the individual level and provide multi-level strategies/interventions to promote policy, systems, and environmental change across North Carolina, with 74 counties receiving high levels of intervention.

To increase physical activity among African Americans and low-income residents in Edgecombe County, NC State Extension will 1) increase the number and promotion of shared use policies and practices in key community organizations, 2) connect and promote vital county and town physical activity resources through wayfinding and signage, 3) support municipalities in improving connectivity between places people live, learn, work, play and pray through walking and recreation space audits, 4) support and promote walking and biking to and during school, and 5) partner with Recreation Resource Services (RRS), the nation������������������s oldest technical assistance and applied research program for parks and recreation agencies in North Carolina, to create and implement a county and municipal park and recreation master plan.

North Carolina State University will conduct comprehensive nutrition education serving individuals and families enrolled in or eligible for SNAP and their communities through the SNAP Education program, Steps to Health. Steps to Health will deliver direct and indirect education on the individual level and provide multi-level strategies/interventions to promote environmental and policy change across North Carolina, with 74 counties receiving high levels of intervention. For FY19, SNAP-Ed will deliver programming to SNAP-eligible pre-K and school-aged children, adults, older adults, and families) will be reached through eight multi-session, direct education programs delivered by NC State Cooperative Extension Staff and Nutrition Educators. Sessions are interactive and multi-sensory, incorporating taste tests, cooking demonstrations, games, discussion, physical activity, songs, and goal setting to facilitate learning and promote positive behavior change. Building on direct education, Steps to Heath will engage in health promotion activities by providing indirect education to people at the interpersonal and community level. Additionally, Steps to Health will enhance direct and indirect education by providing site-specific resources and engaging site leadership/management to address policy, systems and environmental approaches to behavior change. Social marketing will be integrated as a community and public health approach to nutrition education that complements direct and indirect nutrition programming and will reach approximately with children ten years and younger.

To increase physical activity among African Americans and low-income residents in Edgecombe County, NC State and Edgecombe County Cooperative Extension will 1) increase the number and promotion of shared use policies in community organizations, 2) connect and promote vital physical activity resources through wayfinding and signage, 3) improve connectivity between places people live, learn, work, play and pray through walking and recreation space audits, 4) support and promote walking and biking to and during school, and 5) partner with Recreation Resources Service (RRS), to create and implement a county park and recreation master plan.