CAREER: FEAST (Food Ecosystems And circularity for Sustainable Transformation) framework to address Hidden Hunger

Chronic hunger affects 783 million people; hidden hunger (lack of essential micronutrients - vitamins and minerals - in the diet) affects more than 2 billion people. This project seeks to ameliorate hidden hunger through a culturally appropriate, bottom-up, circular food ecosystems approach to understand the micronutrient deficiencies throughout the food system.

The prevailing top-down linear food system model limits current approaches to understanding and addressing hunger. The linear model either focuses on increasing food production (farm) or the end consumer (fork). The middle segment of the linear food system model (food processing) has limited accessibility to underserved communities.

Understanding the middle segment (food processing) is important to address food and nutrition security for the sustainable transformation of food systems. This project aims to develop a circular FEAST framework through research to revive an ancient culturally appropriate Osage food via sustainable food processing to address hidden hunger at the Osage Nation.

Understanding the micronutrient profiles from soil -> water -> plants -> food -> people can advance scientific insights and the interconnections of micronutrients in the food ecosystem. This fundamental understanding connecting qualitative and quantitative data will help design strategies to prevent hidden hunger in the study region: Osage (Wah-Zha-Zhe) Nation, Pawhuska, Oklahoma.

The FEAST Project aims to investigate sustainable food process engineering strategies to address hidden hunger and support food sovereignty in the Osage Nation via three Research Milestones (M) and three Educational Goals (EG). (M 1) To understand the specific interactions in the soil-water-plant-food-people connecting micronutrient deficiencies in the food system, and how this understanding can inform targeted interventions for the Osage Nation to address micronutrient deficiencies effectively. (M2) To address if sustainable food process engineering can be leveraged to enhance the nutrition, accessibility, and availability of a traditional food [elderberry] at the Osage Nation, by adopting a 10 step FPE (Food Process Engineering) protocol and connecting ancient food knowledge with new technology to enhance the economic development. (M 3) Co-creating a FEAST framework with layer-by-layer integration connecting circular food systems and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the Osage Nation to build resilient food and nutrition security systems. The FEAST framework can be scaled to other Tribal Nations to support food sovereignty.

The project's Educational Goals (EG) seek to increase awareness about hidden hunger, sustainable food processing, and SDGs. EG1: Engaging students with real-life problems from the FEAST project into two courses for teamwork: Food Process Engineering and Zero Hunger Challenge. EG2: Designing an Osage specific Cultural Competence for Engaged Research module with inputs from an Advisory Board to interact with the Osage members.

EG3: Developing a digital storybook app in Osage (Wah-Zha-Zhe) language and English. The project team will partner with the Osage Nation- Harvest Land to conduct a pair of two-day FEAST-SDG workshops, including hands-on training on sustainable food processing to revive an Osage food (from M2 & M3) and connecting to SDGs.

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.