NSF Convergence Accelerator Track J: Increased Take-Up of Food Benefits and Consumption of Locally-Sourced Nutrient Dense Food among Vulnerable Populations (LOI L02619530)

数以百万计的大学生无法获得健康和可持续的食物，这削弱了他们在一个已经有三分之一大学生辍学的国家毕业的能力。粮食和营养不安全也不成比例地影响少数族裔和低收入学生，加剧社会和经济差距，抑制国家的健康、教育和创新成果。不幸的是，还没有足够的研究来揭示这个问题的变化在哪里会产生最大的影响。联邦政府资助的不同项目解决了这一多方面问题的各个方面--例如，食品获取、营养教育以及新鲜农产品的购买和消费--但没有一个项目足够吸引符合条件的人口，以实现预期的利益。当前的项目通过努力了解、汇聚和提高参与三个国家补充营养援助计划(SNAP)来应对这一挑战：SNAP外联计划、SNAP-ED计划和SNAP奖励计划。国家计划融合将包括对学术研究和计划评估的见解，以：1)增进对参与食品援助计划和食品安全的障碍和促进的了解；2)指导、测试和改进循证干预措施，以便在服务不足的学生群体中更多地获得和消费健康食品。获得和传播的知识不仅可能揭示参与SNAP的社会和行为决定因素，而且还可能为具有类似目标和目标人群的其他社会福利计划提供信息。最终，这项工作将加速提高人们对促进加州乃至全国健康和高等教育成果的项目的认识、串联使用和影响。本项目将建立关于推动参与解决粮食不安全和健康食品消费方案的因素的一致和可操作的见解。这项工作由一个多学科和多机构的研究团队领导，将心理学、经济学、组织科学、统计学以及食品和营养科学的方法和知识统一起来。研究小组还拥有多份久负盛名的SNAP合同，并获得加州社会服务、食品和营养服务部以及美国农业部的认可。为了深入了解阻碍这种好处广泛采用的相互关联的问题，该项目的第一个方面需要一系列半结构化访谈、全州调查、计划评估和概念分析，以绘制出不同类型的污名和误解如何影响SNAP参与率和食品安全。该项目的第二个方面包括实验室和现场实验，以了解承诺积极影响的特定因素的运作，包括：减少耻辱，对营养密集型食品和SNAP好处的认识，以及围绕食品安全、食品消费和食品素养的积极叙述。该项目的第三个方面包括对最大化有希望的干预措施的影响的网络路径的经验评估。这包括确定符合SNAP标准的大学生中的社交网络结构，然后通过这些网络进行干预，以纠正对食品援助的误解，并用授权的方式取代对食品援助项目的污名化叙述。最后，该项目将把上述活动的经验综合成一本手册，找出支持大学食品不安全持续存在的关键差距和盲点，同时建议具体的、可扩展的策略来克服这些差距和盲点。该工作具有重要的实践和理论价值。在实践中，它将为程序设计提供可行的建议，这些建议来自于汇聚的科学文献，对现有实践的评估，以及使用多种方法的实证研究。从理论上讲，它将为污名、意识、叙事和其他尚未被发现的因素在社会背景下驱动人们对食物的态度和行为的运作和影响建立新的见解。总而言之，这些进展可以促进对建立全国粮食安全努力的理解和有效性。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Millions of college students do not have access to healthy and sustainable food, undermining their ability to graduate in a nation already witnessing one-third of college students drop out. Food and nutrition insecurity also disproportionally impacts minority and low-income students, aggravating social and economic disparities and depressing the nation’s health, education, and innovation outcomes. Unfortunately, there has not yet been sufficient research to reveal where changes to this problem could have the most impact. Different federally-funded programs address various aspects of this multifaceted problem—e.g., food access, nutrition education, and the purchase and consumption of fresh whole agricultural products—but none are sufficiently engaging enough of the eligible population to deliver the desired benefit.The current project meets this challenge with an effort to understand, converge, and improve participation in three national Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP): SNAP Outreach, SNAP-Ed, and SNAP Incentive. National program convergence will include insights across academic research and program evaluation to: 1) advance understanding of what impedes—and what can increase—engagement in food assistance programs and food security; and 2) guide, test, and refine evidence-based interventions for greater healthy food access and consumption among underserved student populations. The knowledge gained and disseminated may not only reveal social and behavioral determinants of participation in SNAP, but may also inform other social welfare programs with comparable goals and target populations. Ultimately, this work will accelerate the awareness, tandem use, and impact of programs to advance health and higher education outcomes across California, and the nation. The present project will establish convergent and actionable insights regarding the factors that drive participation in programs that address food insecurity and healthy food consumption. Led by a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional research team, the work unites methods and knowledge across psychology, economics, organizational science, statistics, and food and nutrition science. The research team also has multiple well-established SNAP contracts and the recognition from California Department of Social Services, Food and Nutrition Services, and United States Department of Agriculture. To gain a deep understanding of the interrelated issues preventing the widespread adoption of such benefits, the first prong of the project entails a series of semi-structured interviews, statewide surveys, program evaluations, and conceptual analyses to map out how different types of stigma and misperceptions affect SNAP participation rates and food security.A second prong of the project involves laboratory and field experiments to understand the operation of specific factors that promise positive impact, including: stigma reduction, awareness of nutrient-dense foods and SNAP benefits, and positive narratives around food security, food consumption, and food literacy.The third prong of the project comprises an empirical evaluation of network pathways to maximizing the impact of promising interventions. This involves identifying the structure of social networks among SNAP-eligible college students, then intervening through those networks to correct misbeliefs about food assistance and to replace stigmatizing narratives around food assistance programs with empowering ones.Finally, the project will synthesize learnings from the above activities into a handbook identifying key gaps and blindspots supporting the persistence of college food insecurity, while recommending specific, scalable strategies to overcome them.The proposed work offers significant practical and theoretical merit. Practically, it will produce actionable recommendations for program design informed by convergent scientific literatures, evaluations of extant practice, and empirical research using multiple methods. Theoretically, it will establish new insights into the operation and impact of stigma, awareness, narrative, and other as yet undiscovered factors driving attitudes and behaviors toward food in social contexts. Together, these advances can catalyze both understanding and effectiveness of efforts to establish nationwide food security.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.