abstract: Food insecurity and childhood obesity are both major public health concerns in the United States of America. Research has not found a definite relationship between childhood obesity and food insecurity to date, with conflicting results being found due to differences in sample sizes and protocol for measuring key variables. Preschoolers (children aged 2-5 years) are a population of particular interest as there tends to be improved health behaviors and greater adaptability to change at this period of growth and development. This study aims to evaluate if there is a relationship between food insecurity and childhood obesity with diet quality as a mediator among preschoolers in the Phoenix area. A secondary data analysis from participants (n=154) from the SAGE (Sustainability via Active Garden Education) research project was used to evaluate food insecurity status, diet quality components (kcal, saturated fat, added sugars, and servings of juice, fruits, and vegetables), and anthropometrics (waist circumference and BMI percentile). No significant associations between food insecurity status, diet quality components, and anthropometric data were found. There was an increased rate of food insecurity and childhood overweight/obesity in this sample compared to state and national averages. Further research of high quality is necessary to determine whether a relationship exists between childhood obesity and food insecurity exists and in what context. Additionally, practice and policy will need to be implemented to decrease rates of food insecurity and childhood obesity among Phoenix preschoolers. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Nutrition 2020

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Although studies on food insecurity among low-income families and children are prevalent, it's rare to come upon a study specifically measuring food insecurities among college students. There are limited accesses for students to government assistance such as food stamps because of their "dependency" on their parents. Although, on paper, the student may still be a dependent, there are a myriad of instances where they are unable to receive monetary help from their parents for different circumstances. My current study is examining an understudied population of college students who use the Knights Helping Knights pantry. The Knights Helping Knights pantry is located on the UCF campus and provides food to students in need. In addition, this study measures awareness of the pantry among a sample of college students. There are two sources of data for this study. The first consists of results from pen and paper surveys given to the students who attend the Knights Helping Knights food pantry located on campus. The second consists of results from an online survey of college students measuring their awareness of the pantry and hunger issues in general. The goal of the research is to examine the barriers to asking for help and the experience of stigma among the students who use the pantry in addition to examining the awareness of other students of the pantry's existence and the need for such a resource.

This dissertation is composed of three manuscripts focusing on food insecurity and food economics in the United States. The first manuscript titled ``Differences in Food Insecurity Across the Rural/Urban Spectrum - The Role of Trade Flows" uses county food trade data to examine its correlation with food insecurity rates based on a county's rural-urban continuum code. In addition, an Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition is employed to determine the causes of food insecurity rate differences between county's based on their rural-urban continuum codes. The second manuscript titled ``The Role of Infrastructure on Food Flows in the United States" uses county food trade data to examine the relationship between county infrastructure important to the food supply chain, such as roadways, ports, food processing and manufacturing plants, grocery stores, supercenters, and restaurants, and the impact on food trade between counties. Specifically, two types of food trade from two Standard Classification of Transported Goods categories are analyzed: agricultural products, and other food stuffs. A Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood model is employed to account for the zero-trade flows observed between counties. The analysis determines that certain infrastructure has an important impact, and the impact can differ depending on the type of goods category. The third manuscript, "Reactions to Food Safety Recalls Among Food Insecure and Food Secure Households" examines the behavioral responses of food secure and food insecure persons to a hypothetical food safety recall using a vignette approach. The analysis finds that reactions can differ across demographics, including those of food insecure individuals. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation focuses on two areas in agricultural and applied economics: food insecurity and food economics. In the first manuscript, I examine how certain types of food trade among counties in the United States impacts a county's food insecurity rate. I also determine how this impact changes based on a county's rural/urban status. Depending on the type of food that is traded, I find that food trade can have an impact on county food insecurity rates. Additionally, the impact of food trade on food insecurity rates differs depending on the rural/urban status of a county. In the second manuscript, I use county food trade data to analyze the drivers of food trade between counties in the United States. Specifically, I examine how a county's infrastructure encourages or discourages the trade of agricultural products and other foodstuffs. I find that infrastructure like roadways, food processing and manufacturing plants, and ports are important drivers of food trade between counties. Lastly, in the third manuscript, I study how food insecure and food secure persons might react differently to a food safety recall of eggs or romaine lettuce. Specifically, I determine how attributes such as price, travel time to a store, and risk of illness from consumption of a recalled food affect a person's decision to throw away, consume, or refund a recalled food. I find that price and travel time to a store impacts this decision. Additionally, I find that demographics such as a person's food insecurity status, race, age, and gender can influence their reaction to a food safety recall in some cases.

Food insecurity plagues college students and is associated with negative health and academic outcomes. The aim of the study was to examine the prevalence of food insecurity, its determinants, and food intake outcomes associated with students found to have low food security. A cross-sectional study design of Mississippi university students completed online surveys that included socio-demographic, Adult Food Security questions, coping strategies, and money expenditures. Descriptive, correlation, and chi-square analyses determined how student characteristics were associated with food security. A total of 246 (41.3%) students were food insecure. Significant variables associated with food insecurity were African American or other minority, low GPA, use of public transportation, do not own a car, reported fair or poor perceived health status, higher money expenditure scores, and lower coping strategy scores. Additional research and institutional strategies are needed to close the gap of food insecurity among this population.

Food insecurity is one of the biggest challenges facing American society today. Over 13.7 million US households were food insecure in the year 2019 and 19 million Americans lived in food deserts in the year 2015 (USDA, 2020, 2017). Despite food insecurities affecting communities in every corner of the country, there is a dearth of research on food security and food deserts. Therefore, the main objectives of this study are 1) to identify underlying neighborhood characteristics that predict the communities at higher nutritional risk, 2) to analyze the impacts of household characteristics on household food insecurity, and 3) to examine the combined influences of both household and neighborhood characteristics on household food insecurity. Through exploratory factor analysis, eleven socioeconomic characteristics of neighborhoods were systematically grouped into two factors. The first factor represented the neighborhoods with lower socioeconomic status and the second factor represented the declining neighborhoods. Both neighborhoods are less attractive to the big retail stores economically (Bonanno, 2012), and are sometimes subject to malpractice like supermarket redlining (Eisenhauer, 2001).The food desert vulnerability index (FDVI) was created by ranking the variables of factor 1 and factor 2, and the ranking was based on percentiles. This index identified the census tracts of the Southern United States, Maine, Oregon, New Mexico, and Arizona as the socioeconomically vulnerable neighborhoods thereby their possibility of being food deserts. Additionally, analysis of the effect of household characteristics using the regression models suggested that households that were large, minorities, single-parent, male-headed, and lived in the metros, and Midwestern and Southern regions were food insecure. Combined assessment of household and neighborhood characteristics using hierarchical linear modeling revealed that only 2.03 percent of the variance in the household food security score was attributable to differences between counties, thereby implying household food security was mostly dependent on the household’s characteristics. The major limitation of this study is that it does not incorporate the cross-sectional variations in food prices, the role of social capital, and the analysis of the food environment to assess household food insecurity. Research examining the influence of these aspects on household food security would be beneficial.

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