The Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods (PRCHN) Seminar Series will return from its summer hiatus Wednesday, Sept. 12, from noon to 1:15 p.m. In the BioEnterprise Building, Room B-03.
Darcy Freedman, associate director of PRCHN, will present “Integrating Systems Science into Efforts to Promote Nutrition Equity.”
About the talk
The presentation is an overview of the Modeling the Future of Food in Your Neighborhood Study (foodNEST 2.0), one of five studies recently funded nationally by the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research and focused on examining complex system dynamics influencing tipping points in local food systems.
The aim of the foodNEST 2.0 initiative is to implement a participatory research approach to unpack the complexities of local food systems change with an eye toward levers that will yield the greatest impact in promoting a healthy, equitable and sustainable local food system in low-resource urban neighborhoods. The end goal of foodNEST 2.0 is to develop credible and relevant computational tools to offer a systems lens within an equity framework to guide future local food system change.
Freedman’s presentation will:
- Highlight the participatory system dynamic modeling method used in the study;
- Provide an overview of project activities over the 3.5-year study timeframe; and
- Highlight preliminary findings related to food system dynamics influencing the main outcomes of nutrition equity, food security, and improved opportunity in low-resource neighborhoods in Cleveland.
About the speaker
Freedman is associate director of PRCHN and associate professor of population and quantitative health sciences at the CWRU School of Medicine.
She provides leadership to the community nutrition and healthy food access core of PRCHN and serves as the principal investigator of the Modeling the Future of Food in Your Neighborhood Study, as well as several other community-nutrition studies funded by the Centers for Disease Control, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and National Institutes of Health.
About the series
The PRCHN Monthly Seminar Series takes place on the second Wednesday of the month from noon to 1:15 p.m. in the BioEnterprise Building, Room B-03 (unless otherwise noted).
The public is welcome to attend, and a light lunch is served.