Doctoral Dissertation Research: Understandings of Food Insecurity and Urban Space in Kansas City

该项目对研究生进行实证、科学的数据收集和分析方法的培训，探索当旨在减轻饥饿的组织努力引入他们的社区时，低收入城市居民如何体验和应对粮食不安全。粮食不安全的人口和经济上被剥离的城市空间越来越成为市政府和非政府项目的重点，这些项目的重点是将空地变成食物来源。但研究表明，这些计划中的大多数在将食物不安全的有色人种包括在内方面并不成功。这个项目询问那些由食品正义计划提供服务的人自己是如何确定食物获取和食物获取障碍的。与那些在食品正义计划中提供和接受服务的人相比，他们的理解如何？食品正义倡议和城市花园的创建经常被认为是对城市公民的巨大好处。但是，这些是解决粮食不安全问题的最有效方法吗，或者居民是否表示有其他方法来解决粮食获取和城市空置问题？该项目的数据和调查结果将被传播，目的是为设计更有效的政策，在美国不同的城市更公平地获得食物提供一个更强有力的框架。这项研究将由密苏里州堪萨斯城的肯塔基大学博士生Chhaya Kolavalli在Ann Kingsolver博士的指导下进行。科拉瓦利将在该市一个支离破碎的地区进行广泛的参与者观察，官员们称该地区为食物沙漠。城市的这一部分主要由非裔美国人居民占据，也是许多旨在解决粮食不安全问题的食品正义项目的所在地，这使它成为测试这些举措有效性的理想地点。她的混合方法将包括采访、内容分析、互动社交地图和焦点小组。互动社会地图将被用来绘制和比较食品正义活动家服务提供者和服务接受者对食物获取、种族和城市空间的理解。这项研究的发现将有助于理解低收入少数群体如何体验和驾驭城市空间和饥饿。结果将与堪萨斯城市政府和非政府组织的代表分享。

This project, which trains a graduate student in methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, explores how low-income urban residents experience and respond to food insecurity when organizational efforts that target hunger alleviation are introduced into their neighborhoods. Food insecure populations and economically divested urban spaces are increasingly the focus of municipal government and non-governmental programs, which focus on turning vacant lots into sources of food. But studies indicate that a majority of these programs are not succeeding at including food insecure people of color. This project asks how those served by food justice programs themselves map food access and barriers to food access. How do understandings of those providing and receiving services in food justice programs compare? Food justice initiatives and the creation of urban gardens are often spoken of as strong benefits to urban citizens. But are those the most effective ways to address food insecurity, or do residents express other means of addressing food access and urban vacancy? This data and findings from this project will be disseminated with the aim of contributing to a stronger framework for designing effective policies for more equitable food access in diverse U.S. cities. This research will be conducted by University of Kentucky doctoral student Chhaya Kolavalli, with direction from Dr. Ann Kingsolver, in Kansas City, Missouri. Kolavalli will conduct extensive participant observation in a fragmented area of the city that officials refer to as a food desert. This section of the city is predominantly occupied by African American residents, and is the site of many food justice programs intended to address food insecurity, making it an ideal site to test the efficacy of these initiatives. Her mixed methods approach will include interviewing, content analysis, interactive social mapping, and focus groups. Interactive social mapping will be used to map and compare food justice activist service providers and service recipients' understandings of food access, race, and urban space. Findings from this research will contribute to understandings of how urban space and hunger are experienced and navigated by low-income minority populations. Results will be shared with Kansas City's municipal government and representatives of non-governmental organizations.