The Swetland Center would like to congratulate PostDoctoral Scholar Owusua Yamoah on her recent notice of funding to support the 'Farmers to Families (F-cube)' research study.
The Covid-19 pandemic accompanied by stay-at-home orders, school closure, and job loss significantly impacted food access and food environment across the United States. It is estimated that an additional 10 million people became food insecure between 2019 and 2020 due the COVID-19 pandemic, ending the periods of declining food insecurity experienced in the country. To address food insecurity, support farmers who were affected by the closing of schools, restaurants and hotels during the pandemic and facilitate local economic development, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) launched the Farmers to Families program in April 2020 as part of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. Through partnerships between the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) and distributors throughout the United States, fresh produce, dairy and meat products from farmers were distributed to families in need. Very little is known about the partnerships that supported the implementation of the Farmers to Families program and the impacts of these collaborative efforts on the implementation sites including the distributors, farmers, food banks, pantries, and households.
The “From Farmers to Families (F-cube)” study will explore the collaborative efforts between distributors, farmers, food banks and distributions sites in the implementation of the Farmers to Families program and the impacts of the program on implementation sites and households in Ohio and Michigan through interviews with food pantry managers, distributors, farmers, and households in both states. This study is funded by the Nutrition and Obesity Policy Research and Evaluation Network (NOPREN) Coordinating Center at the University of California San Francisco’s Center for Vulnerable Populations.