Nutritional Sciences Program

Food Security/Access


July 7, 2022

Fresh Food and Sustainability Intern and the UW Food Pantry

Managed food that is provided to the UW pantry from food service and redistribed in order to reduce waste.  Worked with pantry customers towards alleviating the stress of food insecurity by providing a safe space for them to depend on for resources to maintain health.


Internship at the Community Alliance for Global Justice (CAGJ)

Gained experience in the nonprofit sector of food justice advocacy and policy work.  Evaluated current policy initiatives that directly impact food sovereignty and/or security and added to the research that empowers and supports partnering organizations, who represent farmworker communities and independent unions.


Food Security Internship at the University of Washington Farm

Worked in collaboration with the UW Farm and UW Food Pantry, to explore food from not only a field experience in organic farming, but also management and evaluating data to better understand food security and strengths and weaknesses of the food system.  This allowed application of conceptual, theoretical, and technical food systems concepts learned in…


January 5, 2022

Food Bank Delivery Programs: Best Practices Across the U.S.

The United Way of King County (UWKC) has been running a county-wide food bank delivery program since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020). To provide the best and most efficient service UWKC partnered with the University of Washington Nutritional Sciences Program 2nd year graduate students for assistance with research on local and national…


Strategies for the Provision of Culturally Relevant Foods

This brief intends to answer the question: “What have food banks and community food programs nationally done to best address providing culturally relevant food?” Though significant efforts have been made to provide more culturally relevant food to communities in need, published and grey literature about actionable strategies to address this issue are scarce. This document…


Assessing Demographics of United Way King County DoorDash Clients vs. Low-income King County Residents

The United Way of King County (UWKC) partnership with the DoorDash delivery program seeks to fill the gaps in regional food bank services during the Covid-19 pandemic, and better serve populations facing acute and/or chronic food insecurity. The purpose of this analysis, performed as a Capstone project for the University of Washington Nutritional Sciences MS…


SNAP and Emergency Food System Use and Users: A Report for UWKC

The original research questions for this project are, “What is the relationship nationally between SNAP program users, and emergency food system users/clients? What are the characteristics of who uses each program, and how are they similar or different from one another?” United Way of King County (UWKC) seeks to answer these questions to inform their…


November 9, 2021

The Association of Food Insecurity and Disordered Eating Behaviors Among Youth and Young Adults with Diabetes: The SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Study

This study examines the relationship between household food insecurity (i.e., access to nutritionally adequate and safe food) and disordered eating behaviors (i.e., restriction, bingeing, insulin manipulation, etc.) among a sample of youth and young adults with youth-onset type 1 or type 2 diabetes.


June 15, 2021

The School Breakfast Participation Project


December 8, 2020

Round 2 of Washington study underway to determine food, economic insecurity during pandemic

Empty dinner plate on wood table

How UW, WSU, and Tacoma Community College researchers, along with input from partners in Washington State local, county, and state government, are understanding the impacts of COVID-19 on food insecurity and access in our state.



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