Category Archives: Research

Dealing with Disparities in Food Acquisition among Refugees (DDFAR): A Transdisciplinary Exploration of the Influence of Social, Environmental, Cultural and Personal Determinants on Food Acquisition Practices Among the Burmese Americans

The project examines the ways in which Burmese-American residents acquire healthy, affordable, and culturally acceptable foods in the city of Buffalo.  In particular, the project focus on examining how Burmese-Americans adapt their food acquisition practices in their new country, how they perceive health risks tied to these practices, and how their food acquisition practices may change their food environment.

Coordinator: Alex Judelsohn

Faculty team: Samina Raja (School of Architecture and Planning), Heather Orom (School of Public Health and Health Professions), Isok Kim (School of Social Work, Roberto Diaz Del Carpio (School of Medicine)

Sponsor: UB Community for Global Health Equity

Buffalo Neighborhood Food Project Evaluation Study

The Buffalo Neighborhood Food Project builds on the past successes of Grassroots Gardens of Buffalo (GGB) and the Massachusetts Avenue Project (MAP) in improving local food systems in the City of Buffalo. In the Buffalo Neighborhood Food Project, these organizations are partnering to achieve four goals:

1)      To meet the food needs of low income youth and families in Buffalo

2)      To advocate for policy in support of food systems development

3)      To increase the self-reliance of our community in providing for our own food needs

4)      To create a comprehensive and replicable school garden program

The Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab is partnering with these two organizations to evaluate the programs each organization has implemented to meet these four goals. This involves data collection on food cultivation outcomes at GGB’s 76 community gardens and five school gardens in the City of Buffalo, and at MAP’s urban farm on Buffalo’s West Side.

This project is funded through a competitive grant awarded to GGB and MAP by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture.

Project Lead: Jenny Whittaker

Active Commuting in the Sweet Home Central School District

SHS_SRTS_logoSafe Routes to Schools programs seek to foster improvements that facilitate active commuting in five thematic areas: education, encouragement, engineering, enforcement, and evaluation. The Town of Amherst, New York is the lead sponsor of a Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program that builds off a successful 2008 SRTS program in the Williamsville Central School District. This project, funded through the United States Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, facilitates infrastructure and non-infrastructure improvements to increase active commuting to schools in the Amherst Central and Sweet Home Central school districts.

The Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab is actively involved in the education, encouragement, and evaluation components of this program in the Sweet Home Central School District and the Amherst Central School District through events such as Walk to School Day and other active commuting events. The Town of Amherst Engineering Department is our partner in engineering, and the Town of Amherst Police Department is our partner in enforcement.

Team Members: Samina Raja, Sora Baek, Bumjoon Kang, Jeanne Leccese, Elizabeth Machnica

Resources

The Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab has developed a number of resources in partnership with the Sweet Home Central School District and the Town of Amherst. These resources include maps for each district elementary school that indicate safe walking and bicycling routes to school and infographics with useful information and facts about walking and bicycling for parents, students and school administrators. In addition, we have published the results of a survey of parents from the Sweet Home Central School District. These resources can be found below.

Growing Together: A Sustainable Regional Plan for Food Access and Justice

Growing Together is a sustainable food access and food justice report for Erie and Niagara Counties, located in Western New York State.  Through research and stakeholder engagement, the Food Lab is identifying assets and opportunities within the region’s food system.  In partnership with the University at Buffalo Regional Institute, the Food Lab aims to craft tools that the bi-counties’ many municipalities can use to strengthen:  the viability of food production; access to nutritious, culturally acceptable, and affordable food; and the linkages between food producers and eaters within their communities and the region.

Growing Together is one of five components of the bi-counties’ One Region Forward sustainability plan, which is funded by $2 million from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Partnership for Sustainable Communities Initiative.  One Region Forward focuses on planning sustainably for food access and justice; land use and development; transportation and mobility; housing and neighborhoods; and climate change.   The project is currently in the second year of HUD’s three-year planning grant.

Team members: Jessica Hall (Project Manager), Cristina Delgado, Travis Norton.

Purchases of Food in Youth: Influence of Price and Income

Epstein, Leonard H., Elizabeth Handley, Kelly K. Dearing, Davi,d D. Cho; James Roemmich, Rocco Paluch, Samina Raja, Youngju Pak, and Bonnie Spring. 2006a. “Purchases of food in youth: Influence of price and income.” Psychological Science 17(1): 82-89 

Beyond Food Deserts: Measuring and Mapping Racial Disparities in the Food Environment

Raja, Samina, Changxing Ma, and Pavan Yadav. 2008a. “Beyond food deserts: Measuring and mapping racial disparities in the food environment.” Journal of Planning Education and Research. 27(4): 469-482. Included in ‘Editors’ Picks’ column of the Environment: Science and policy for Sustainable Development journal (Sep/Oct 2008).