Community resilience in a rural food system: documenting pathways to nutrition solutions

To describe and determine the barriers and facilitators to food-related health behaviors of residents in a rural Mississippi Delta community.

Descriptive study of qualitative interviews.

A non-random sample of 34 low-income, food-insecure adults residing in a rural Mississippi Delta community were interviewed using fuzzy cognitive mapping, a mixed methods approach.

Participants strongly emphasized the time restraints they faced in both procuring and preparing foods, due to substantial travel time required to procure groceries. Participants also identified key facilitators to healthy eating behaviors, including seasonal produce stands, foraging, fishing, home provisioning, and access to the local food pantry. These barriers and facilitators are highly interconnected with other influential factors including poverty, lack of health care, unemployment, and faith-based support systems.

While the connection between low food access and poor eating habits is well researched, this novel mixed-method approach details two important elements missing from the literature: (1) other factors often overlooked that mitigate or exacerbate this relationship and (2) the dynamic nature of the relationships between these factors, poor eating habits, and health. Additionally, this research examines these relationships in an underrepresented rural minority population where resources needed to mitigate poor health are often much more limited. Findings from this study are critical to health and food policy in Mississippi and more generally, rural communities.