B'more Healthy Food Systems

04/17/2025

Check out our latest paper, entitled "Formative research for an innovative digital application to strengthen healthy food access and resilience in food pantries: the Support Application for Food PAntrieS (SAFPAS) study" now published in the Taylor & Francis Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition!

The paper details our formative research process to inform the design of the mobile Support Application for Food PAntrieS (SAFPAS) app, which digitally integrates and enhances food pantry management, client food choice, and emergency preparedness.

Read the full paper here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19320248.2025.2482149?src=

03/07/2025

Check out our latest paper on "Community Member Shopping Experiences in Dollar Store Food Environments in Baltimore, Maryland" now available online in Current Developments in Nutrition!

This paper explores Baltimore community member perspectives on barriers and facilitators to shopping for food in their local dollar stores, including recommendations for improving the food options and quality, and store service and organization.

As dollar stores continue to remain a hot topic, it is our ultimate goal to ensure that future programs and policies aimed at changing the dollar store landscape are informed by community voices and can support healthy food purchasing in these spaces.

Read the full paper here: https://cdn.nutrition.org/article/S2475-2991(25)00045-9/fulltext

09/12/2024

Congratulations to members of our team for their latest publication, "Barriers and enablers for equitable healthy food access in Baltimore carryout restaurants: A qualitative study in healthy food priority areas".

This paper sought to identify factors to promoting equitable healthy food access through interviews with small independently-owned carryout restaurant owners serving historically marginalized Black neighborhoods in Baltimore, Maryland in 2023.

Read more here: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/16/17/3028

07/10/2024

Congratulations to our BUD team on their latest publication, entitled "Factors and Perceptions Associated with Post-Pandemic Food Sourcing and Dietary Patterns among Urban Corner Store Customers in Baltimore, Maryland".

The paper examines individual- and household-level factors in a sample of Baltimore community members who regularly shop at corner stores and how these factors are associated with indicators of dietary quality further contextualized by shared lived experiences.

The full paper can be accessed here: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/16/14/2196

07/08/2024

Our team had a lovely week presenting & networking with colleagues from near and far at the American Society for Nutrition Annual Meeting in Chicago! We’re already looking forward to the next one!

06/25/2024

Our wonderful research assistant, Audrey Thomas, MSPH, CHES® (who just graduated with her master's degree!) is currently at the National Rural Grocery Summit 2024 in Montgomery, Alabama and just presented on some of her work with rural Maryland farmers, “Farmers’ Perspectives of a Digital App to Build Direct to Retail Sales Channels in Rural Areas”. Her findings will help inform the development of our BUD app to meet the needs of rural store owners and suppliers in a future planned trial in Charles County, Maryland. Great job, Audrey!

06/18/2024

Congratulations to Dr. Michelle M. Estradé on successfully defending her DrPH dissertation today, entitled “Examining Federal Food Assistance Program Participation as a Means of Improving Diet-Related Health Equity for Indigenous Populations in the United States”. It was a beautiful presentation & we look forward to seeing her expand upon this work in her new role at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health 🎉

05/31/2024

Our latest paper features a glimpse into how we co-generated a mobile app interface with Baltimore community members aimed at improving neighborhood food sourcing.

Check out the full article via MDPI: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/16/11/1723

05/24/2024

Our SAFPAS (Support Application for Food PAntrieS) food pantry project protocol was just published in Frontiers in Public Health!

We anticipate that the SAFPAS mobile application will improve alignment in the supply and demand for healthy foods among food pantry neighbors, food pantry staff and volunteers, and city agencies which supply food in Baltimore.

Check out the full article below, and take a look at our website for more information about the project:

Article: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1340707/full?utm_source=Email_to_authors_&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=T1_11.5e1_author&utm_campaign=Email_publication&field&journalName=Frontiers_in_Public_Health&id=1340707

Website: https://healthyfoodsystem.net/projects/support-application-for-food-pantries-safpas/

Support Application for Food Pantries (SAFPAS) Follow us on Instagram Overview Food pantries face many challenges, including recruitment and training of staff/volunteers, communications with staff/volunteers and neighbors, providing neighbor choice, and emergency preparedness. We will develop, imple...

05/18/2024

We're excited to share some of the latest formative research findings from our FRESH Project, which works with small independently-owned carryout restaurants in Baltimore and Washington, DC to improve healthy offerings.

Check out the full article linked below, and be sure to head over to Instagram to follow along our FRESH page () for future updates on community events, carryout tours, papers, and more!

(1) Background: Independently owned restaurants (IORs) are prevalent in under-resourced racial and ethnic minority communities in the US and present a unique setting for public health nutrition interventions. (2) Methods: We conducted 14 in-depth interviews with IOR owners in Baltimore about their p...

05/16/2024

Check out our team's latest publication featuring community member and policy maker perspectives on Baltimore City Dollar Stores:

IntroductionThere are currently over 50 dollar stores in Baltimore City, Maryland. Community perceptions of over-saturation and resulting neighborhood impacts have garnered recent attention. A Maryland State Senate Bill required further study of dollar stores in Baltimore City to inform future polic...

05/06/2024

Members of our FRESH Project team had a blast at the Oliver Community Farm 2024 Oliver Spring Festival this weekend with The 6th Branch, Holistic Wellness and Health, Baltimore Oliver Community Association, & many other incredible local vendors and organizations!

If you’ve never been to the Oliver Community Farm, we highly recommend visiting The 6th Branch's website (https://the6thbranch.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/the6thbranch/eventRegistration.jsp?event=4373&) to learn more about how you can volunteer through one of their various urban farming programs.