Formative Research to Understand Key Barriers to Implementing a Farm-To-Table Program in the Navajo Nation (2008)
Sara Bleich, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, JHSPH
Dr. Bleich’s research focuses the feasibility of linking famers on the Navajo Nation to their community in order to increase consumption of local produce, particularly among American Indian children. The disproportionate prevalence of poverty and obesity among American Indian children puts them at greater risk for obesity-related illnesses and unhealthy food environments compared to American children overall. The study will specifically examine the barriers and challenges to implementing a Farm-to-Table program. Farm-to-Table programs encourage consumption of local produce and could help improve the food environment, but may be difficult to implement due to cost, infrastructure limitations and local availability of produce. The project will conduct formative research with farmers, school administrators and food service staff and local store owners to determine the challenges of instituting such a program and strategies for overcoming observed obstacles. In-depth interviews will be combined with survey questionnaires to stakeholders whose participation is important for the successful implementation of a Farm-to-Table program. Bleich and her co-investigator, Joel Gittlesohn, Ph.D., an Associate Professor in the Department of International Health, Center for Human Nutrition, also intend to gain insight on the potential role of non-government organizations in sustaining Farm-to-Table programs by developing structured surveys for stakeholders as a means of evaluating a future Farm-to-Table program on the Navajo Nation. 
Results Research in progress
See Other Related Projects Building a Healthy Food Environment: Sustaining a Community-based Environmental Intervention Program to Improve Diet and Health in American Indian Communities
Muge Qi, MHS, Doctoral Student, Department of International Health, JHSPH
| 
