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

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.