Identifying opportunities for collective action around community nutrition programming through participatory systems science

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Cancer Causes Control
• Personal Author:
  Chebli, Perla ; Đoàn, Lan N. ; Thompson, Rachel L. ; Chin, Matthew ; Sabounchi, Nasim ; Foster, Victoria ; Huang, Terry T. K. ; Trinh‑Shevrin, Chau ; Kwon, Simona C. ; Yi, Stella S.
• Description:
  Purpose
  
  To apply principles of group model building (GMB), a participatory systems science approach, to identify barriers and opportunities for collective impact around nutrition programming to reduce cancer risk for immigrant communities in an urban environment.
  
  Methods
  
  We convened four in-person workshops applying GMB with nine community partners to generate causal loop diagrams (CLDs)—a visual representation of hypothesized causal relationships between variables and feedback structures within a system. GMB workshops prompted participants to collaboratively identify programmatic goals and challenges related to (1) community gardening, (2) nutrition education, (3) food assistance programs, and (4) community-supported agriculture. Participants then attended a plenary session to integrate findings from all workshops and identify cross-cutting ideas for collective action.
  
  Results
  
  Several multilevel barriers to nutrition programming emerged: (1) food policies center the diets and practices of White Americans and inhibit culturally tailored food guidelines and funding for culturally appropriate nutrition education; (2) the lack of culturally tailored nutrition education in communities is a missed opportunity for fostering pride in immigrant food culture and sustainment of traditional food practices; and (3) the limited availability of traditional ethnic produce in food assistance programs serving historically marginalized immigrant communities increases food waste and worsens food insecurity.
  
  Conclusion
  
  Emergent themes coalesced around the need to embed cultural tailoring into all levels of the food system, while also considering other characteristics of communities being reached (e.g., language needs). These efforts require coordinated actions related to food policy and advocacy, to better institutionalize these practices within the nutrition space.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Diet Food Humans Nutritional Status Nutrition Policy Refuse Disposal
• Keywords:
  Cancer Disparities Community Engagement Cultural Adaptation Food System Immigrant Communities Systems Science
• Source:
  Cancer Causes Control. 34(12):1043-1058
• Pubmed ID:
  37481755
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC10979368
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  R01HL141427/HL/NHLBI NIH HHSUnited States/ ; P30 CA016087/CA/NCI NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U54 MD000538/MD/NIMHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01 HL141427/HL/NHLBI NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U01 DP006643/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHSUnited States/ ; U54MD000538/MD/NIMHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; 3P30CA016087/CA/NCI NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01 MD018204/MD/NIMHD NIH HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  34
• Issue:
  12
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:3dbff417bed366658cc325e2f95474b6a2d60b060cafc452d81c9de18baa3e82
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/153612/cdc_153612_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.40 MB ]