E235: A successful interactive obesity treatment approach

April 22, 2024

Traditional clinical weight loss interventions can be costly, time consuming, and inaccessible to low-income populations and people without adequate health insurance. Today’s guest, Dr. Gary Bennett, has developed an Interactive Obesity Treatment Approach, or iOTA for short, that represents a real advance in this area. Dr. Bennett is Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Medicine and Global Health at Duke University, where he is also Dean of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences.

Related podcasts: Diet & Nutrition | Equity, Race & Food Justice | Obesity |

 

E234: White Burgers, Black Cash – a history of fast food discrimination

April 8, 2024

Fast food is part of American life. As much a part of our background as the sky and the clouds. But it wasn’t always that way, and over the decades, the fast food landscape has changed in quite profound ways. Race is a key part of that picture. A landmark exploration of this has been published by today’s guest, Dr. Naa Oyo A. Kwate. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Africana Studies and the Department of Human Ecology at Rutgers University. Her book, recently published, is entitled White Burgers, Black Cash: Fast Food From Black Exclusion to Exploitation. The book has been received very positively by the field. And was recently named the best book in the field of urban affairs by the Urban Affairs Association.

Related podcasts: Equity, Race & Food Justice | Food Industry Behavior & Marketing | Food System Narratives |

 

E225: Efficient Food Recovery and Waste Prevention – a Business Strategy

January 17, 2024

Our guest today is Jasmine Crowe-Houston, social entrepreneur, and founder of Goodr.co. Jasmine started her journey cooking soul food for hungry unhoused people in her kitchen in her one-bedroom apartment in Atlanta. She fed upwards of 500 people a week for years with pop-up kitchens and parks and parking lots. Then in 2017, she founded Goodr, a technology-based food waste management company that connects firms with food surpluses to nonprofit organizations that can use the food. She has worked with organizations that have food waste issues, such as the Atlanta International Airport, Hormel Foods, and Turner Broadcasting. Today, Goodr has expanded nationwide and sponsors free grocery stores and schools. She has combined charity, innovation, and market-based solutions into a for-profit waste management company that Inc. Magazine called a rare triple win.

Related podcasts: Climate Change, Environment & Food | Equity, Race & Food Justice | Food Banks, Food Pantries & Soup Kitchens | Food Insecurity | Food Safety & Food Defense | Food Waste & Implications |

 

E224: Mississippi Delta History Describe Food Power Against and For Blacks in US

January 16, 2024

Stories from the past help us understand who we are and who we can be. In today’s podcast, we will explore a gripping new book titled “Food Power Politics: The Food Story of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement,” written by African American Studies Assistant Professor Bobby J. Smith II at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The book tells how food was used as a political weapon against African Americans and describes how black people fought against oppressive regimes by creating their own food systems, Bobby sets the stage for understanding how black youth today in Mississippi and beyond are building food justice movements and grappling with inequalities that attempt to contort their lives.

Related podcasts: Equity, Race & Food Justice | Food Insecurity | Food System Narratives | History & Food |

 

E221: Understanding Poverty, Wellbeing, and Food Security for US Children

November 30, 2023

As the parent of a 12-year-old child, I know that raising a child is one of the most profound and rewarding experiences of a person’s life. It is also shockingly expensive. The high cost of child rearing is particularly difficult for families with limited resources. To help us think through this issue, it is my great pleasure to welcome a colleague here at Duke: Dr. Christina Gibson-Davis, Professor of Public Policy. Christina studies economic inequality, and particularly how it affects families with children.

Related podcasts: Child Development & Nutrition | Diet & Nutrition | Equity, Race & Food Justice | Food Insecurity | Food Policy | School Meals | Social Safety Net & Food |

 

E213: Righting the Wrongs of Heirs Property

August 25, 2023

In the United States, food insecurity is unevenly distributed. Recent data suggests that white households have nearly a third to one half the food insecurity rate of Black and Hispanic households. While research on the reasons for food insecurity typically focuses on income, a body of research suggests that wealth could be an important factor in food security. According to today’s guest, Conner Bailey, professor emeritus of Rural Sociology at Auburn University: “Land is one of the major sources of wealth controlled by Black families in the South, and much of this land continues to be owned as heirs property.” Thus, if we want to understand differential food and security, we need to consider that the wealth implications of heirs property.

Related podcasts: Equity, Race & Food Justice | Food Insecurity | History & Food |

 

E212: Do SNAP work requirements encourage self sufficiency or hurt those who need help the most?

August 17, 2023

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is one of the largest poverty alleviation programs in the United States and provides help to around 14% of the US population. Since 1996, the program has required able-bodied adults without dependents to work in order to receive food assistance. Proponents of work requirements say it prevents government dependency. Critics, however, argue work requirements push out the people who need food assistance the most. Today we’ll talk with two economists about the impact of SNAP work requirements: University of Rochester’s Elena Prager. and Adam Leive at the University of California, Berkeley.

Related podcasts: Equity, Race & Food Justice | Food Policy | Social Safety Net & Food |

 

E198: Why SNAP pandemic benefits for college students should continue

March 7, 2023

There has been increasing attention to the issue of food insecurity among college students. Estimates vary, but to provide some perspective, one report found that a staggering 30% of all college students experienced food insecurity at some point in their college careers. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the US temporarily extended the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to college-aged students. But now this pandemic help is set to expire, impacting more than three million college students who have relied on this program for food. Today we speak with Heather Taylor, a former US delegate to the United Nations, and now managing director of Bread for the World. Having experienced severe food insecurity as an undergraduate student at Georgetown University, she now advocates for SNAP expansion for college students and other marginalized groups facing food insecurity.

Related podcasts: Diet & Nutrition | Equity, Race & Food Justice | Food Insecurity | Food Policy | Social Safety Net & Food |

 

E197: USDA plans for online WIC Benefits

February 28, 2023

In February, 2023, the US Department of Agriculture announced plans to streamline and modernize WIC – the Women Infants and Children Program focused on supplemental nutrition. We’ll talk about the future of WIC today with Stacy Dean, the Deputy Undersecretary for USDA’s Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services.

Related podcasts: Child Development & Nutrition | COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts on Food | Equity, Race & Food Justice | Food Insecurity | Food Policy | Social Safety Net & Food |

 

E192: How to achieve food equity with SNAP

January 4, 2023

Today we’re speaking with coauthors of a new report by the Center for Law and Social Policy, entitled “A Community-Driven Anti-Racism Vision for SNAP.” Senior policy analyst, Parker Gilkesson, and community organizer, Tamika Moore, argue that although public benefits such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program provide critical care and support for families with low incomes, they also reinforce racism and structures of oppression.

Related podcasts: Advocacy & Food | Diet & Nutrition | Equity, Race & Food Justice | Food Insecurity | Food Policy | Social Safety Net & Food |