Matthew Tafoya

"Notes from the cornfield: Indigenizing access to healthy food using traditional Navajo culture, agroecology, food, and policy alignment."

This American Indian Studies graduate research project is to investigate the maintenance and sustainability of a CDC Partnership to Improve Community Health (PICH) grant funded program to increase access to healthy food and beverages within the Fort Defiance Agency of the Navajo Nation. From 2014-2017, a ‘638 Navajo hospital was awarded a 3 million dollar grant to decrease diabetes by 3% over a three-year period by implementing 7 interventions. By the end of year 1, the 7 interventions were either rejected by communities, or found to be not useful. In year 2, intervention changes were made that responded to community need and included community supported agriculture (CSA) in the form of community gardens and school gardens. This research project is to re-visit and assess 30 PICH CSA intervention sites and determine activity, access to healthy food and beverages, and if they have improved the social ecology.