Research Projects
Poverty Center Awards Seed Funding Grants
The Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity's Seed Funding Grants are a reflection of its commitment to public engagement. Intended to encourage interdisciplinary poverty-related research at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, these grants offer short-term funding for researchers to develop innovative and applied research projects with community partners that lead to larger, sustained efforts.
Both of the winning proposals demonstrated intellectual vibrancy, solid community partnerships, value to a variety of stakeholders and potential to lead to larger, long-term research. The Center is proud to sponsor them.
The winning proposals are:
Preventing Black Farm Loss and Moving Toward a Sustainable Food System in North Carolina: Informing Policy (Alice Ammerman, Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Department of Nutrition, UNC Schools of Public Health and Medicine)
The Poverty Center will fund a policy analysis of the loss of minority-owned farmland and its resulting economic impact. Working with a larger interdisciplinary team, the study will consider the economic viability of black- and Hispanic-owned farms producing sustainably grown foods for local consumers. This analysis has the potential to lead to future efforts supporting farm ownership by African American and Hispanic farmers and its findings will be presented in a report to be disseminated by the Poverty Center.
This project is part of a larger study examining sustainable food systems and their effect on the intertwined problems of obesity, environmental degradation and disparities in health and economic status.
The current food production and distribution system--characterized by large scale production and long distance transportation of often high-calorie, nutrient-poor food--contributes significantly to each of these problems. In addition, large farms result in concentrated wealth in rural communities, leading to an alarming loss of farmland and livelihood, particularly among minority farmers. This directly and adversely affects rural communities where chronic disease rates are highest.
A highly interdisciplinary team, comprised of many UNC departments, centers and schools as well as faculty from NC State, NC A&T and Duke, state agencies and several nonprofit organizations, will gather health, environmental and economic data within North Carolina in order to inform future research efforts and policy decisions related to local, sustainable agriculture and provide tested, innovative programs and tools to directly improve public health.
NC Hunger Pilot Project (Maureen Berner, School of Government)
One of the best measures of poverty is whether you can reliably put food on the table for your family. In 2005, the USDA reported that North Carolina ranked higher than the national average for rates of both food insecurity (13.8%) and prevalence of hunger (4.9%) among the state population. Moreover, these rates had increased significantly from previous reports.
Many state residents turn to food assistance programs to help them alleviate hunger. Although these programs were created as short-term solutions for crisis situations, two-thirds of people receiving assistance from food pantries get help on a regular basis. Yet little is known about the demographic characteristics of people who seek food assistance. This research will create a portrait of hunger in North Carolina, allowing stakeholders to develop a deeper understanding of the need that exists and begin a dialogue aimed at reducing the effects of poverty in North Carolina.
Working in coordination with the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, researchers will gather the statistical data vital to addressing the needs of this vulnerable population. Researchers will visit 40 pantries across the central and eastern parts of the state to understand who needs food assistance, how often, and why.
The information from this pilot will lead to an extensive state-wide study. By documenting food assistance spells, evaluating the factors that influence how long individuals receive food assistance and disseminating our results, the NC Hunger Project will educate policymakers, service providers and researchers about the detailed nature of hunger, spurring coordinated action and affecting systemic change.
New Developments
In early June, the team of researchers assembled by Dr. Ammerman received a grant of over $400,000 establishing the two-year project as a Gillings Innovation Laboratory within the UNC School of Public Health. Visit the UNC School of Public Health website for more information on this and other Gillings Innovation Laboratories as well as the Gillings program generally.
The Sustainable Food Systems project was discussed in the "Well" column in the New York Times on June 6, 2008.
The Poverty Center would like to thank the many UNC researchers and their project partners who inquired about the Seed Funding Grants, with special appreciation to those who submitted proposals. The number of research projects at UNC addressing the needs of low income North Carolinians is impressive, as is the array of academic units involved in this research.
The New Orleans Recovery Initiative
A Project of the UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity
Administered by the Center on Urban and Regional Studies; with participation of the UNC School of Social Work, the Department of City and Regional Planning and the UNC School of Law; and with the support of the UNC Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Development.
Almost three years after Katrina devastated New Orleans, the city and its residents are still struggling to recover. Estimates suggest that the recovery process will go on for at least several more years.
The New Orleans Recovery Initiative (NORI) was designed to connect the expertise of the University's faculty, students and staff with the needs of community groups in New Orleans. Its origins lie in a challenge issued by Walter Isaacson, Vice-Chair of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, during a Poverty Center-hosted event (Katrina Revisited, September 8, 2006). Mr. Isaacson called for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to commit its resources and energy to aid in the rebuilding of post-Katrina New Orleans. In response, Oscar Barbarin, a professor in the School of Social Work, traveled to New Orleans later that fall in order to explore ways that the University of North Carolina could become involved.
Read more of the history behind NORI's formation.
Read the New Orleans Recovery Initiative's Plan for UNC-CH Involvement in the Rebuilding of New Orleans.
Learn about the timeline of NORI activities.
Find resources and read articles about post-Katrina New Orleans.
Make a tax-deductible contribution to NORI (this link will take you to the UNC "Carolina First" home page). For donations to NORI, the "University Designation" is the School of Law and the "University Fund" is the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity. All donations earmarked for the New Orleans Recovery Initiative or NORI will be used exclusively for this project. Thank you.