FFAR’s existing Tipping Points Grantees work with community organizations within five U.S. cities to understand various aspects of the local food system and improve health and economic outcomes through quantitative modeling of the food system. Food system investments in urban communities often work on isolated factors to improve health, equity and economic development. However, food systems are complicated networks that intersect with the environment, housing, education, the economy and other factors. Understanding how these factors interact informs the best use of limited investments to improve health and economic outcomes in these communities.
FFAR is providing a total of $482,642 in supplemental funding the five Tipping Point grantee to examine the trade-offs associated with policy and programming interventions in response to COVID-19. The FFAR supplemental funding is also spurring collaboration between Tipping Points grantees and Feeding America. The Tipping Points grantees are using Feeding America’s data to inform the Tipping Point models.
Joy Casnovsky, Sustainable Food Center and Dr. Alexandra van den Berg, The University of Texas Health Science Center
Austin, Texas
FFAR Award Amount: $83,356
The FRESH Austin study is using supplemental funding to examine the impact of the pandemic on access to fresh, nutritious food in the Austin area. The research team is working with other Tipping Points grantees to simulate different food access scenarios in response to COVID-19 and evaluate the impact on food purchasing and consumption behaviors. The resulting model will inform local policy decisions to help optimize the food system in Austin in the post-COVID era.
Dr. Beth Feingold and Dr. Xiaobo X. Romeiko, University at Albany
Albany, New York
FFAR Award Amount: $99,987
Dr. Feingold’s team is using the supplementary funding to study how COVID-19 is impacting food access in New York’s Capital Region, with specific attention on understanding how the fresh produce recovery and redistribution arm of the Capital Region food system is absorbing the shock. The team anticipates that their findings will reveal the benefits and tradeoffs associated with policy and program interventions in response to COVID-19.
Dr. Darcy Freedman, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Cleveland, Ohio
FFAR Award Amount: $100,000
Dr. Freedman is building on her Tipping Points grant developing participatory system dynamic models to inform food systems transformations and promote equity. Supplementary funding is extending this work to better understand how a common system shock like COVID-19 will produce differential impacts at the neighborhood level, given unique starting points. The team will model the effects of COVID-19 in neighborhoods with high, medium and low food security before March 2020. Their findings will be used to tailor food system solutions to diverse neighborhood contexts.
Dr. Steven Gray, Michigan State University
Flint, Michigan
FFAR Award Amount: $99,230
Emergency food is a particularly important part of the food system in Flint. Dr. Gray is investigating how emergency food programs, including food banks, schools and Meals on Wheels, intersect with the retail sector. Flint’s emergency food program and the retail sector are both fragile due to the struggling local economy, the city does not have the tax-base to sustain retail stores and many residents rely on a supplemental food system that is not driven by supply-demand economics. The research team is assessing how residents are obtaining food during the pandemic to highlight potential barriers and examples of success, while understanding how it has changed due to COVID-19.
Dr. Becca Jablonski, Colorado State University
Denver, Colorado
FFAR Award Amount: $100,000
Dr. Jablonski’s research team is evaluating how food is provided through emergency feeding programs, including SNAP, food banks and schools; and who uses these services; the costs of these services; the food provided; and its dietary quality. The research team is surveying low-income households with school-aged children to understand the availability of food across supply chains, the price of these goods and producer profitability.
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Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research
The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) builds public-private partnerships to fund bold research addressing big food and agriculture challenges. FFAR was established in the 2014 Farm Bill to increase public agriculture research investments, fill knowledge gaps and complement the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s research agenda. FFAR’s model matches federal funding from Congress with private funding, delivering a powerful return on taxpayer investment. Through collaboration and partnerships, FFAR advances actionable science benefiting farmers, consumers and the environment.
Connect: @FoundationFAR | @RockTalking