Poverty Center Seed Funding Grants

2008 Seed Funding Grants

Preventing Black Farm Loss and Moving Toward a Sustainable Food System in North Carolina: Informing Policy

Principal Investigator: Alice Ammerman, Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Department of Nutrition, UNC Schools of Public Health and Medicine

The loss of minority owned farms is a chronic problem in North Carolina. Dr. Ammerman's project will look at the economic effect of these vanishing family farms. Working with a large interdisciplinary team, the project will consider the economic viability of farms producing sustainably grown foods for local consumers and will craft policies that support minority farm ownership.

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 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.

Dr. Ammerman has assembled an extensive network of researchers, state agencies and area farmers. Together they will gather health, environmental and economic data in 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.

New Developments:

  • Congratulations to Dr. Ammerman and her team of researchers who received a grant of over $400,000 establishing her sustainable food research 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.
  • Dr. Ammerman's sustainable foods research was discussed in the "Well" column in the New York Times on June 6, 2008.
  • In spring 2009, a group of graduate students, led by Peter Balvanz, began talking to African American farmers in Vance County to identify the joys and pains of farming.  Farmers were given disposable cameras and asked to take photos that they associated with certain land loss themes.  Using the photos as catalyst for discussion, both students and farmers got to the heart of issues affecting minority farmers.  
  • One of the persistent ideas that emerged was the desire of farmers to engage local youth in farming.  This led to a second phase, which will look at reasons more young people don't farm and explore ways to make farming a more attractive career option.

The sustainable foods project has a blog!

NC Hunger Pilot Project

Principal Investigator: Maureen Berner, School of Government

Many North Carolinians turn to food assistance programs to help them alleviate hunger. These programs were envisioned and created as short-term, emergency solutions for crisis situations. Yet two-thirds of people receiving assistance from food pantries turn to them regulalarly. To better understand why, Dr. Berner collecting data on food pantry clients, creating a portrait of hunger in North Carolina.

Working with the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, researchers will visit 40 pantries to research three issues: 1) the institutional capacity of food pantries; 2) the interaction between food stamps and pantry usage; and 3) how employment and hunger are related.

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 the 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:

The Hunger Pilot Project team has visited over 14 pantries, conducting interviews with pantry operators and gathering information on almost 500 clients, plus their families.  These clients in total made 4990 trips to the pantries in the study over a three year span (2005-08) and the team has collected data going back farther in time.

A few early observations:

  • Some food pantries are large operations with paid staff and the capacity to assist clients with bills, food stamp applications and other services. Others are are open only a few hours a week, relying on one or two dedicated volunteers. One of the pantries in this project is located in a renovated tobacco barn. Another is in an old town hall (the food is stored in the jail cells).
  • Project researchers have also noted that a large number of both pantry operators and clients are older. This raises questions about the capacity and ongoing survival of the pantries as well as the extent of unmet needs among the elderly.
  • Many of the clients visit a pantry regularly.  In other words, pantries are nota temporary stopgap in out-of-the-ordinary emergencies; they play a vital and continuous role in preventing hunger.

Dr. Berner and her team are currently busy analyzing the data and summarizing their findings in a number of papers.  The UNC School of Government also hosts a webpage dedicated to this project.

Paper #1: When Even the "Dollar Value Meal" Costs too Much: Food Insecurity and Longterm Dependence on Food Pantry Assistance.  Delivered at the 2009 Annual Conference of the Midwest Political Science Association, April 2009.