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.
