{"id":253170,"date":"2026-09-21T07:15:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T11:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=253170"},"modified":"2026-09-17T15:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T19:40:15","slug":"community-based-participatory-research-to-address-unhealthy-food-environments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2026\/09\/community-based-participatory-research-to-address-unhealthy-food-environments\/","title":{"rendered":"Community-Based Participatory Research to Address Unhealthy Food Environments"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Unhealthy local food environments threaten the health and well-being of young people, and exacerbate health disparities in lower-income populations and communities of color.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Researchers at\u00a0the\u00a0UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health<\/a> and the Hispanic Health Council<\/a>\u00a0(HHC)\u00a0believe\u00a0engaging youth in the design and delivery\u00a0of\u00a0a\u00a0program\u00a0to\u00a0improve\u00a0their food environment\u00a0is\u00a0a path to\u00a0impactful\u00a0and\u00a0lasting\u00a0change.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

This belief was at the center of a two-year\u00a0community-based participatory research\u00a0project supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.\u00a0Throughout the project, the\u00a0UConn and HHC\u00a0team trained two cohorts of students from Hartford Public High School to be\u00a0Adolescent\u00a0Citizen\u00a0Scientists\u00a0(ACS)\u00a0with the goal to\u00a0identify, prioritize, and co-design\u00a0a program to address the\u00a0unhealthy food environment they experience.\u00a0Topics covered in the training program developed by the\u00a0researchers\u00a0included\u00a0nutrition,\u00a0health\u00a0equity, food marketing, research,\u00a0program co-design,\u00a0and\u00a0communications.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The\u00a0ACS applied their\u00a0newly-developed\u00a0skills\u00a0to\u00a0assist\u00a0in designing\u00a0and implementing\u00a0focus group research<\/a> to identify barriers to healthy eating that their peers experience. Based on the research findings and consultation with the program\u2019s Community Advisory Board, they identified a feasible and potentially impactful program for co-design: Food Resource Guides<\/a> to address food insecurity among students and families in the Hartford Public High School community and throughout Connecticut, which were widely disseminated<\/a> in May 2026.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cThe Adolescent Citizen Scientists were our collaborators at every stage of this project,\u201d says Fran Fleming-Milici, Ph.D., director of food marketing initiatives at the UConn Rudd Center and a principal investigator for the ACS program. \u201cThey utilized their training to identify the problem they wanted to tackle and were instrumental in designing a final project they were passionate about.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In addition to Fleming-Milici, key collaborators on this project included Sofia Segura-P\u00e9rez and Ashley Hernandez at HHC; Jennifer Harris, Ph.D., at the UConn Rudd Center; and Rafael P\u00e9rez-Escamilla, Ph.D., at the Yale School of Public Health.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Now, the research team is sharing the resources they developed and the lessons they learned from this project to help\u00a0community partners and researchers who wish to engage high school students in the design and delivery of community-engaged programs to improve their food environment.\u00a0Specific materials the team\u00a0developed include:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n