Grant: Operating Grant: Knowledge to Action

Evidence In Practice; Food Environments; Knowledge-To-Action; Municipal Government; Policy Readiness; Population Health Intervention Research; Systems Thinking; Toolkit Implementation

<html> <body> <u>Our overarching goal is to accelerate the development of evidence-informed, testable, local population health interventions in Canada, to improve access to healthier foods in the food retail environment</u>. Our team is currently working with Health Canada Office of Nutrition Policy and Promotion (ONPP) and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to prepare a knowledge-to-action (KTA) toolkit for local governments, the Food Retail Environments Shaping Health Intervention Toolkit (FRESH-IT). <br> <br> FRESH-IT guides municipal development of a food retail environment intervention through three toolkit components, built from our previous research: an <u>evidence application guide</u> with a vignette-based deliberative method to elicit tacit knowledge; a version of the <u>Policy Readiness Tool</u> adapted for food retail environment intervention development; and a <u>food environment assessment manual</u> based in measurement best practices. The proposed CIHR KTA project will coordinate FRESH-IT implementation using a &lsquo;systems thinking&rsquo; KTA approach in four smaller municipal test jurisdictions in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), Ontario (ON), Manitoba (MB), and Alberta (AB) with the support of local champions. The anticipated outcome of implementing FRESH-IT in each jurisdiction will be <u>a pilot food retail intervention</u> <u>and evaluation plan, with broad-based support, suitable to bring forward for endorsement</u> at relevant budgetary decision making body.<br> <br> Our project <u>partners researchers and knowledge users in addressing a significant food environments KTA gap</u>. Food environments have received growing research and policy interest, stemming from work on &lsquo;obesogenic&rsquo; environments and their relationship to energy imbalance and poor dietary quality.Local food environments are also a health equity issue. Our team of Drs. Mah, Minaker, Cook, and Raine are a highly qualified multidisciplinary team at the cutting edge of population health intervention research in food environments in Canada, with a strong track record of independent and collaborative contributions in this area. We have research, policy, and practice expertise as well as critical &lsquo;real-world&rsquo; experience in the specific type of KTA implementation work that the test jurisdictions will be doing. Our team will: 1) provide FRESH-IT training; 2) serve as key resources throughout implementation; 3) help establish the case for intervention including cooperating in brokering support of decision makers and diverse stakeholders; and 4) outline design alternatives for evaluating the proposed intervention. A local champion from the test jurisdiction will: 1) facilitate access to networks in the local context and co-broker stakeholder relationships; 2) synthesize local datasets and manage any new data collection and analysis; 3) co-lead, with our team, the coordination of local intervention design, suitable for decision-maker review. <br> <br> Through this project, we will <u>increase the intervention research capacity</u> of local governments, <u>advance the science of food environment measurement</u> in Canada, and <u>engage key local, provincial/territorial, and federal stakeholders</u> in KTA.</body> </html>