Engaging Youth in Food Environments Research: The Role of Participation

Abstract

Minority youth in the United States experience higher rates of diet-related health disparities than their white, non-Latino counterparts. The field of community food security seeks to employ holistic constructs to better understand the social and environmental factors that impact diet-related health. Some perspectives greatly advocate the inclusion of youth in constructing problems and solutions; however, it is unclear what level or form of participatory learning and practice is necessary in community food security and food environments initiatives. This article describes a university–community partnership project that included youth as members in what we refer to as a food environments community of practice. Drawing from theories on sociocultural learning and typologies of participation we explore how our approach enabled and constrained ideal youth participation, as well as the food environments and community food security discourses and practices the youth find most relevant.

KEYWORDS:

• youth development
• food environments
• community food security
• participatory research

The authors thank Susan Cocciarelli of the C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems at Michigan State University for her technical support, participation in the project's design, and feedback throughout its implementation. The authors also thank Kirk Goldsberry, PhD at Michigan State University, Department of Geography, for the GIS maps used in this project.