Community Research Projects

The long-term goal of our program is to prevent obesity and chronic disease. In the next five years, our research and extension projects will have a special focus on increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in high-risk, low-income populations in California. Our community nutrition research and extension activities will involve graduate students, staff, county-based advisors, and faculty in the following objectives:

1) Design and validate instruments to measure youth preferences for and consumption of fruit and vegetables;

2) Develop and evaluate community-based programs (for example, family, school, afterschool, summer camp) to increase preferences for and consumption of fruits and vegetables in low-income youth;

3) Develop and evaluate the feasibility of a Farm-to-WIC intervention to increase local access to fresh, good-quality, culturally-preferred produce in low-income families;

4) Determine the impact of a Farm-to-WIC intervention on voucher redemption rates and the variety and amount of fruit and vegetables consumed by WIC participants;

5) Conduct formative research (focus groups) among Mexican-American families with young children to determine culturally appropriate messages and behavioral targets related to healthy lifestyles (including consumption of plant-based diets);

6) Determine the effectiveness of a monthly fruit and vegetable voucher incentive, coupled with a community-based nutrition education and physical activity program, in slowing the increase in childhood obesity in a Mexican-heritage population in Fresno and;

7) Develop and evaluate an internship program to train nutrition students at UC Davis and CSU Sacramento to foster cultural competency and effectiveness in educating immigrant populations.