Grant: Operating Grant: Programmatic Grants in Food and Health - LOI

Aboriginal persons (including children) are more likely to endure food insecurity than non-Aboriginal persons. Food insecurity exists whenever the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or the ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways is limited or uncertain. It includes the fear of not being able to provide or obtain food, and, in severe cases, hunger due to food shortages. Our aim is to support community-researcher partnerships in evaluating interventions to reduce food insecurity in multiple Aboriginal communities with the aim of enhancing and expanding the evidence base concerning effective food security interventions across a diversity of contexts. The research will not be limited to studying impacts or effects (i.e., change of prevalence of food insecurity); rather it will also document the reach of interventions, their differential uptake, suitability to local contexts, effectiveness, sustainability, the side effects or multiplier effects (co-benefits and risks), and the benefit Aboriginal people ascribe to having the intervention. Traditional evaluation research implies that the University researchers are the sole bearer of authority, decide what intervention is needed and then choose the criteria for evaluation. In contrast, we will use participatory evaluation, a partnership approach in which local stakeholders actively engage in the evaluation, ensuring that the evaluation focuses on locally relevant questions that meet the needs of program beneficiaries. In addition to providing knowledge about how to create sustainable food security programs in Aboriginal communities, the outcomes of the research will be an improved conceptualization of food security for Aboriginal peoples, and the development of appropriate tools for the measurement of food security in Aboriginal communities.