Planning: Collaborative: Food Security and Traditional Foods in Urban Spaces

This planning award supports the development of a sustainable, collaborative, and participatory research program focused on urban Indigenous food systems in Alaska. As rural residents have migrated to urban centers, such as Anchorage, reliance on traditional foods has changed and food insecurity has increased. This work will lay the foundation for the first study of how migration affects urban Indigenous food security at the household and community levels in Alaska.

The project is structured in three phases and involves development of partnerships with tribal organizations, local leaders, and scholars to identify priorities for urban food security research. Planned meetings will focus on assessing the role of and access to traditional foods in urban settings; how rural-to-urban migration affects food security; and how research can support urban food security.

Over the two-year duration of the project, the PI team will network with local leaders, food organizations, and scholars working on Indigenous food security and food sovereignty in Anchorage. Through a series of in-person and virtual meetings, network participants will use a participatory and collaborative approach to identify research and outreach priorities.

These priorities will form the foundation of a future NSF proposal addressing how access, availability and use of traditional foods affects food security. Broader impacts include development of a multidisciplinary network of food security researchers and practitioners with Indigenous representation; a review article that addresses urban Indigenous food security; and experiential learning by two undergraduate researchers.

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.