Why research?

Several people have asked us about why we need to do research to improve food access in our community. It’s a good question.

Many communities have food pantries, mobile meal programs, and other resources that help people get food. These programs are invaluable and it’s important for people to keep supporting them. However, these organizations need to know how they can best serve the community. They are interested in knowing what the gaps are in the services they provide, who is currently not accessing services, and why they aren’t using them. Furthermore, the current programs may not be sufficient and there may be a need for novel ideas to create greater food access.

These are questions that can be answered through well-designed, community-wide research efforts. These are questions that our project aims to answer.

During the early stages of our project (over the summer of 2015), we met with various community organizations and food programs in our community to learn about their questions. We found that they had many questions and intuitions about the experiences of their clients, but they did not have the time or resources to explore these questions in detail.

From these conversations, we put together a comprehensive list of research questions. Here is just a small sample of the questions they shared with us:

1. What barriers prevent people from eating healthy, culturally-appropriate food for themselves and their families for all their meals?

2. What challenges prevent people from utilizing services that would help them access and prepare food?

3. Who are the people experiencing food insecurity that we, as a community, are not serving?

4. How do people find out about the food resources available to them?

5. How do people feel about accessing food through services and government benefits?

6. What foods do people use most often?

7. What foods are people unable to access or get enough of?

8. Why do people make visits to multiple food pantries?

The process of systematically exploring the experiences of people who face food insecurity helps to illuminate the specific challenges they face in getting food. The people who use these resources and experience challenges with getting food on a daily basis are the people who have the best understanding of what problems exist. They are also most likely to have insights into what we, collectively, can do to improve food access – through enhancing current programs and creating new initiatives that fill the gaps. Without answers to these questions, it is impossible to grow a responsive community food system.