Solutions

Solving food and nutritional insecurity in urban populations is complex, with no quick fix resolution. The factors that impact food and nutritional insecurity in urban populations within the U.S. are interconnected and multifaceted. The Lafayette greater are is no different. In this community and communities like it, the factors can be broken down into several key areas:

Availability of nutritious food - due to lack of stores offering nutritious options
Access to nutritious food - due to socioeconomic constraints and transportation options
Quality of diet - due to either lack of access to nutritious food or lack of nutrition education

In looking at solutions these three key areas must be kept in mind and an understanding of how they impact each other must be in the forefront. For example the lack of nutritious food can impact education through slower and lower cognitive development, impacting future earnings, which in turn can impact the community a person can afford to live in. This in turn alters the potential food choices available to them through retail options in their community. To solve these issues it will require a multiprong approach.

One solution in Lafayette to help address the factor of availability and access to nutritious food has been the Grow Local Urban Gardens Network started by Tippecanoe County Extension. This program features 11 community gardens. Many of these are in "food desert" communities, meaning they do not have access to grocery stores within a 1 mile radius. These 11 gardens offer fresh produce to community members for free, although offering some elbow grease to weed and harvest in exchange for this nutritious food is encouraged. Extra produce is distributed through Food Finders food banks which offer food to food insecure populations in a 16 county area. In addition, other programs are offered through Tippecanoe County Extension to educate consumers about nutrition and stretching their dollar when making food purchases. However, in discussion with Tippecanoe County Extension agent, Veronica Jalomo, she pointed out that many food and nutritionally insecure community members do not take advantage of the gardens and are not aware of the opportunity.

Local Solutions

What would you do?

In the Lafayette greater area there are multiple factors that impact food and nutritional insecurity. Even with programs offered to increase availability, access, and education many community members are still not reached. So what would you do to help the situation? One solution that we proposed was the development of an app to publicize the community gardens to community members and offer short educational insights. 95% of Americans now own a cell phone and this has become a powerful tool. Due to this, an app could be utilized that would help food insecure community members locate the community gardens, be made aware of when produce was ripe, and offer short educational messages about food and nutrition. While this is by no means a complete solution, it would increase awareness of nutritional food options available to them and provide a pathway to easy to access quick information about nutrition. Given the problem facing the Greater Lafayette area and some of the solutions currently in place, we ask you - What would you do?

Your solution should either:

Improve on a current solution
Provide a new solution
Replace a current solution