Clinical Research Directory

Ripe for Revival: Outcomes Evaluation of a Mobile Produce Market With Vouchers

Increasing access to healthy foods is crucial to combating chronic disease in rural communities. The Ripe for Revival mobile market, a non-profit eastern NC-based mobile market, seeks to improve healthy food access among those at greatest risk of food insecurity and poor health. By implementing vouchers at the mobile market, this study will help make healthy food affordable and accessible. This project is poised to improve diet and health among rural residents in eight counties and promote sustainable local food systems in North Carolina.

Delta GREENS Food is Medicine Intervention

Though the Mississippi Delta has a rich agricultural history and some of the nation's most fertile soil, residents have experienced the legacy of slavery and economic exploitation through food insecurity and poverty for generations. This project focuses on Bolivar, Washington, and Sunflower, contiguous counties in the Delta that are designated as health disparity populations. Over 65% of the 100,000 residents are Black/African American and \~30% live at or below the poverty level. Obesity rates are high and the rate of diabetes is almost double the national average. Tufts University received a grant from the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities to develop, test, and evaluate a Food is Medicine program in Mississippi. The Delta Growing a Resilient, Enriching, Equitable, Nourishing food System (GREENS) Food is Medicine (FIM) Project, is a collaborative project in Bolivar, Washington, and Sunflower counties in Mississippi. The intervention involves regularly distributed fruit and vegetable produce boxes as well as nutrition education materials to the intervention group. The control group will receive produce boxes later, after they complete study activities. The project's primary goal is to improve health outcomes by creating a FIM intervention. The Delta GREENS FIM Project aims to become a model for promoting nutrition security and management of chronic conditions in varied communities nationwide.

Mississippi Community Engagement Alliance (MS CEAL): Fostering Community Solutions

The Mississippi Community Engagement Alliance (MS CEAL) Team proposes to address the complexities of Mississippi's health issues and social determinants of health through its Fostering Community Solutions (FOCUS) Project, with two objectives: (1) advance the health and wellbeing of Mississippi's populations experiencing differing health outcomes; and (2) enhance the resilience and power within communities to disseminate and implement evidence-based interventions. This study's specific aims include: (1) examine whether the inclusion of a nutrition education program increases fruit and vegetable consumption in a food box distribution program and (2) recruit and train community nutrition liaisons to implement sustainable community strategies to longitudinally support nutrition security. The primary outcome for the first specific aim will be fruit and vegetable consumption. Secondary outcome measures will include changes in perceptions and knowledge related to food consumption and dietary intake. Clinical outcomes will include changes in blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol. For Specific Aim 2, outcomes will include the ability to recruit community nutrition liaisons at each site, the number of trainings, pre/post training assessments, and outreach metrics.