Working to increase residents’ access to healthy food

Sustainable Food Center, an Austin, Texas-based nonprofit dedicated to strengthening the local food system, was recently awarded an FFAR Tipping Points grant to study and model the impact of existing efforts in Austin to increase residents’ access to healthy foods.

In collaboration with UTHealth and other partners, researchers will follow residents over three years to examine the impact of food access strategies on fruit and vegetable consumption, food security and obesity. They will also develop an agent-based model to simulate expansion scenarios and their anticipated impacts.

Study results will provide insight into the implementation of future accessibility strategies.

– Joy Casnovsky, MPAff, Deputy Director, Sustainable Food Center