Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / The opportunities and challenges faced by young people who are not in any kind of employment, education or training (NEETs) are under-reported by scholars in the field of development. In this regard, what NEETs in South Africa know about nutrition and how they pursue nourishment are neglected areas of research. Yet they are important considerations for policymakers. The majority of young people in the age group 18–24 are, strictly speaking, no longer their parents’ responsibility, with the child support grant that their caregiver may have received having terminated when they turned 18. However, many young people have not found jobs and are therefore not financially independent. As a result, they are constrained in being able to access food (or at least the food that they particularly enjoy). This study aimed to investigate the lived experiences of young adult NEETs in terms of food and nutrition, what they do to ensure that they are nourished, and the kinds of nutritional achievements that they have to choose from.

On average, low-income individuals have poorer diet quality compared to their high-income counterparts. However, improved food access may offer opportunities to improve diet among this population. This study examines how the low-income population navigates between barriers, resources, and opportunities to acquire healthy foods in different settings. Chapter 3 examined how the use of a farmers’ market incentive program among the low-income population impacts F&V consumption. We observed no effect on F&V consumption due to program participation but users of the program have a significantly higher F&V consumption than non-users. Chapter 4 identified transportation difficulties as a barrier to the uptake of farmer’s market incentive program and that larger families may be less likely to take advantage of opportunities provided by farmer’s market incentive programs. Chapter 5 examined the association between factors that influence food choices (taste, price, convenience, concern for nutrition, and concern for weight) and food access and availability in the home. We found that certain behaviors (concern for nutrition) exhibited within the food purchase environment may impact food access and availability in the home. We conclude that more efforts and interventions that target improving consumer’s perceived importance for nutrition and transportation access to food resources are needed; especially among low-income population with low F&V consumption. In addition, information and financial access to food resource opportunities should be expanded, specifically among those with low F&V consumption and expanding the food incentives for larger families should be considered.

<p>Accessibility often isn’t recognized to the abled-bodied. The objects, systems and tools of access aren’t even noticed until those without disabilities need it or become disabled themselves. Building on my initial academic and scholarly research, I conducted a case study at The Wabash Center; a facility that serves people with disabilities in the local West Lafayette and surrounding communities. I spent three months observing, journaling, and identifying key patterns that revealed the tensions in food access issues at the facility. These patterns included community, agency, dependency and assistance, and accountability. The issues I identified at The Wabash Center all fall under the overarching issue of power and control. Power and control describes the notion that is often exercised by abled-bodies in the presence of people with disabilities. In this context, food and food access is used as a form of power and control. It is commonly found that the issue of power and control is embedded in design and the way that designers conduct their processes. To better understand the systemic relationships and issues of food access, it was imperative to analyze the internal interactions of how disabled people negotiate in an institutionalized setting. This thesis discusses the reflection process of my efforts to look critically at my own assumptions about disability, food access, and its relationship to design.</p>

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Food insecurity has been documented on college campuses. Exploring the barriers that factor into food access can provide insight into how to combat food insecurity in higher education. Furthermore, exploring how these barriers play a role in students' Quality of Life (QoL) can help improve a student's success while in school. Little research has been done on food access and its impact on QoL, and research is completely absent in regard to its effects on agriculture students specifically. As the desire for degrees increases, students from more diverse backgrounds are attracted to college. Many students from underrepresented populations experience barriers to attaining a degree that other students may not. First-generation students, being the first in their family to attend college and have little to no knowledge of how to navigate the challenges of degree attainment., International students experience living in a completely different culture and having to adjust to a new country and a new educational environment. This mixed-method study focused on how food access barriers impact the QoL of first-generation, international, rural, and urban College of Agriculture and Life Science students at Virginia Tech. The study involved a concurrent phase (1) of a cross-sectional survey consisting of multiple choice and open-ended questions. The sequential phase (2) of the study constructed interview questions from themes found in phase 1 and then were used to interview students. Once interviews were completed, phase 1 and phase 2 results were then compared to provide a broad view of how food access impacts QoL for agriculture students. The results from the study showed an adjusted R square explained .277 or 27% of the variance in the dependent variable QoL to be affected by the independent variables. The independent variables of food access, first-generation, Asian, and undergraduate classification of senior were shown to be significant in the first stepwise linear regression model. In the 6 stepwise linear regression models that examined the QoL of students based on department/schools, each model was found to be significant and have food access as significant predictor variable. An additional 6 stepwise linear regression models were completed to examine the significant independent variables from the department/school QoL scores models. The QoL scores explored were Asian, Hispanic/Latino, first-generation, international, rural, and undergraduate senior status and all showed food access as a predictor value to impact QoL. In addition, lack of awareness of resources, lack of options that are affordable and available, demanding schedules, running out of meal plan money, lack of acknowledgment of food access concerns, and environment impacted students' ability to access food. Students also voiced that lack of access to food impacted their QoL in the following ways: concentrating in class, studying, attending social events, maintaining a positive physical and mental health status. The impact of food access is a multidimensional problem that was shown to impact the QoL of CALS students at Virginia Tech. Preventing hunger and overcoming food access barriers are not problems to solve overnight. Finding solutions will take time and dedication from leadership, faculty, staff, and students. In addition, just because you may not be experiencing low food access doesn't mean you never will or that your friends are not going through the situation. Demonstrating love, empathy, and kindness when talking about hunger will be needed to lead the fight against this all-too-prevalent problem. / Doctor of Philosophy / "I often feel like when I'm running on fumes when I haven't eaten something nourishing. Depending on my commute to campus, I park and still have to walk/bike to get to my final destination. I often worry about falling faint when I'm operating on limited sleep and food. I even feel impacted by my ability to focus on class or work. On another side, I often focus so much on my daily tasks that I forget to eat entirely." One of the most basic needs an individual requires to complete daily life tasks is food, according to the theory of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (MHoN). Food insecurity is a prevalent concern for both higher education professionals as well as the college students who are experiencing the problem. Students face barriers that hinder their ability to access the quantity and quality of food they need to be successful in school. Food access is a multidimensional problem that can involve accessibility to food, the availability of food, affordability to purchase food, and awareness of resources. It is crucial to better understand how food access can have an impact on students' Quality of Life (QoL) (physical health, psychological health, social relationships, and environment) as well as the student's success in school. This understanding will advise higher education institutions on what their role can be in tackling the barriers students face when accessing food. This should improve the QoL of students, thus creating better outcomes for academic success at their institutions. Leadership, faculty, and staff can work to address the problem of hunger on campuses by listening to the voices of students on this ever-evolving problem. The issue is complex, but, ultimately, for students to be successful, their basic needs will need to be met. As such, supporting a student's access to food is absolutely essential.

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This study is an examination of the role of community-based food projects in place making and collective futuring efforts. I look specifically at food access projects in Dayton, Ohio, a city I have personal connections to. In this study, I forefront the concepts of relationality, co-creation, ownership, economic (dis)investment, soil systems, and regeneration as they emerge from my fieldwork on food access in Dayton, which consisted of interviews, participant observation, and spatial analysis. My methodology centers on critical mapping which the traces conceptual and material connections that shape food access in Dayton and situate community-based efforts within broader economic and political landscapes. In doing so, I demonstrate how food access can be conceptualized in terms of global contours and local manifestations. I draw on the work of Anna Tsing, Karl Polanyi, Jason Moore and Bikrum Gill, to develop a political ecology of encounter that examines the historical roots and ongoing practices of enclosure as a tactic of governance that shapes human-nature relations in specific ways. I demonstrate how these acts of enclosure bring to the fore certain ecological relations in ways that uphold dominant systems of power, while obfuscating other ecological relations. This allows me to theorize encounters between individuals, communities, and environments as political sites of both impasse and change. I conclude that food (in)access is a feature of the production and management of eco-social relations by governments, communities, and individuals. Thus, in focusing on the eco-social relations and encounters that are fostered through food production, distribution, and consumption, communities can (and are) working to build more socially and ecologically just futures. / Doctor of Philosophy / This study draws on research in ecological sciences and social sciences as well as data gleaned from interviews and observations in Dayton, Ohio to explore the role of community-based food systems in building resilience against the cascading effects of anthropogenic climate change. I turn to Dayton largely due to my personal connection to the city. This speaks to this study's attentiveness to community building efforts of folks in Dayton and attention to politics of the everyday. Using interviews, observations, and scholarship in political ecology, I map the efforts of Dayton residents to improve community food access within broader economic, social, and political systems to show how these projects both improve food access for communities and promote a sort of politics that contributes to the economic, ecological, and social health of Dayton communities. This positions these projects as important efforts in building resilience against ongoing and intensifying disturbances and disasters from climate change amidst the ongoing failure of political and economic institutions to enact meaningful change. Finally, I explore how these findings help to develop a broader research framework that is grounded in lived experience and attentive to broader political, social, and economic systems.