FOOD DIGNITY PROJECT
About the Project
This 5-year, $5 million project spanned 5 sites across the nation by partnering researchers at universities with community organizations, including Feeding Laramie Valley, to support, learn from, and teach about community food systems. The objective was to explore the most appropriate and effective roads forward for creating sustainable community food systems that build food security in the US.
The project spanned the years 2011 - 2016 and included multiple component initiatives including TEAM Grow, which tracked the impact of home gardening; Gardens for Health and Healing and Growing Resilience, which monitored health and other outcomes for gardeners on the Wind River Indian Reservation and in Albany County; and the Food Chronicles, a documentary project that collected stories of community members’ relationships to food.
This was the first study in the United States that used multiple methods to track multiple types of gardening yields across multiple locations for multiple years. The Food Dignity project was supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant no. 2011-68004-30074 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Food Dignity Partners
Community-Based Organizations
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Feeding Laramie Valley - Laramie, WY
Universities
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University of California Davis - Sacramento, CA
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University of Wyoming - Laramie, WY
"The current working vision is of a society where each community exercises significant control over its food system through radically democratic negotiation, action and learning in ways that nurture all of our people and sustain our land for current and future generations, and where universities and cooperative extension are supportive partners in this process."
-Courtesy of the Food Dignity Website
Key Take-aways
Results from the Food Dignity studies support other research that gardening can form an essential part of addressing some of the most entrenched problems in the United States, including chronic disease, food insecurity, socioeconomic inequality, and reduced social networks.
What the multiple studies show is that gardening confers real and tangible benefits, including in the following four areas:
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Gardening improves physical health
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Home gardening can yield nutritionally meaningful amounts of high-quality food
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Specifically, a 253 sq. ft. garden plot can produce enough vegetables to meet the USDA-recommended serving needs for two adults throughout a growing season
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Gardening supports “cultural ecosystems” by providing opportunities for recreation, cultural enrichment, and community-building
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Gardening can foster healing and transformation for individuals and communities
In addition to studies regarding the benefits of gardening, the project produced many fruitful reflections on the nature of community-university collaborations and, based on the nature of inherent power dynamics, the ways that research impacts study participants and communities.
Learn More
The Food Dignity Project website gives a comprehensive overview of the project, results, and partners:
The project produced multiple products, including research reports, posters, reports, and documentary storytelling. We invite you to browse these here:
"Food for Dignity and Democracy."
Porter, C.M. & Woodsum, G.M.
2014
Workshop presentation. UW 14th Consumer Issues Conference. Laramie, WY.
“Local Food Security.”
Woodsum, G.M.
2014
Panel presentation. League of Women Voters. Laramie, WY.
"A Place at the Table" film discussion, Hunger and Homelessness Week
Porter, C.M., Woodsum, G.M.
2013
Panel presentation, Service, Leadership & Community Engagement (SLCE), University of Wyoming.
"FLV Food, Health, and Justice."
Woodsum, G.M.
2013
Oral presentation to University of Wyoming Food, Health, and Justice Class.
"Working for Food Equality in Albany County, Wyoming."
Woodsum, G.M.
2013
Presentation for Friends of Recreation.
"FLV Food, Health, and Justice."
Woodsum, G.M.
2012
Oral presentation to University of Wyoming Food, Health, and Justice Class.
"Organizing Community Food Systems for Wyoming's Health."
Porter, C.M., Woodsum, G. M., & Sutter, V.
2012
Plenary presentation at the Wyoming Public Health Association annual meeting.
