Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition

Society for Medical Anthropology

Cosponsored - Oral Presentation Session

Finding Solutions Together: Food Systems Planning through Community Engagement

Presenter(s)

• LR

  Linda Reed-Jerofke

  Professor of Anthropology
  Eastern Oregon University

Co-Author(s)

Jennifer Puentes (Eastern Oregon University)

For the Kalispel Tribe of Indians, effective food system planning incorporates heritage, culture, territory, and community needs. With a community engagement model, our research helped identify regional and community needs regarding access to healthful and first foods. Using focus groups in a world café rotation and mapping of traditional foods, we involved our undergraduate students in high impact research. Given the brevity of our 2-day meeting, this method enabled us to focus on meeting goals, examine important questions, encourage everyone’s contributions, and learn about diverse perspectives. In this presentation, we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the world café method and our experiences engaging students in collaborative research.