Food Stores & HEAT

Access to Healthy Foods and the Health Equity Alliance of Tallahassee

An applied participatory research study of food stores in Tallahassee, FL with community collaborators and anthropologists from the University of Florida to determine and implement the best solutions for addressing the lack of healthy foods in predominantly Black neighborhoods.

Quick Look

My role

After community members pinpointed the lack of healthy food in local stores as a high-priority, I helped design a study of stores to find solutions. I analyzed in-depth interviews for themes with MAXQDA, and presented to stakeholders.

Impact

Our findings made it clear that coordinated action was needed to affect change. The Health Equity Alliance of Tallahassee (HEAT) was founded to use research to push policymakers and stakeholders to address sources of health inequity.

Next steps

HEAT continues to work with researchers and the local community members on key health problems, including the disparity in heart health among Black populations in Tallahassee.

Project Overview

Access to Healthy Foods and the Health Equity Alliance of Tallahassee

CHALLENGE

In response to local priorities identified in a community-based participatory research project, collaborated with local leaders in Tallahassee, FL to identify key barriers to availability of healthy food in Black communities.

PROCESS

A diverse group of local and other researchers worked to map and catalogue foods stores, interview stakeholders and triangulate findings into actionable recommendations.

IMPACT

We identified lack of local control over food purchasing decisions as central to limited availability of healthy food in stores. The Health Equity Alliance of Tallahassee (HEAT) was formed to advocate for better access healthequityalliance.org

WHAT DIDN’T WORK

The sample of available store owners and managers was insufficient to make systematic comparisons between store types.

Planning

GIS Mapping

Racial inequities in food store type and access

I mapped food stores in relation to demographics and neighborhoods to create a sample of stores to study.

Analysis

Theme analysis

Multiple coders worked together to ensure that theme creation was not biased by the worldview or experience of the coders.

Multi-dimensional Scaling of themes against word frequencies

Study Results

Barriers to store owners and managers stocking healthy foods

Analysis made it clear that barriers to healthy food access for most stores within a short distance of residents’ homes were largely out of the control of local managers and employees. In fact, the failure to stock healthy foods was often a result of centralized decision-making that was agnostic to the health of communities and happening at a disconnected, corporate level. The highest profits ruled, no matter the affect on customers over the long-term.

Read more about the results in our peer-reviewed article

Impact

We supported the creation of HEAT to help address systemic problems such as lack of access to healthy foods in local stores

Next, you can check out some of my other projects or if you have any questions about the research process for this study, feel free to contact me and I would be happy to discuss it in more detail.

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