Our Projects

Project Descriptions

Food Fitness Opportunity

Child Nutrition  The Child Nutrition Project, led by the Carolina Hunger Initiative, focuses on nutrition education and increasing access to healthy foods served through federal child nutrition programs statewide and provides nutrition education across North Carolina. To learn more, contact Tamara Baker at tamarabaker@unc.edu.

Community Gardens  Working alongside our community partners, we support community garden projects as a means to increase access to fresh produce, opportunities for physical activity, and social connectedness. These projects often lead to improved health, stronger communities, and opportunities to reconnect with cultural traditions. To learn more, contact Brett Sheppard at brett_sheppard@unc.edu.

Communities on the Move  Starting in 2018, the Communities on the Move program facilitated the creation of social environments that promote youth civic engagement and physical activity among nearly 100 community members across three distinct, underfunded, and disenfranchised neighborhoods in Orange County, NC. To learn more, contact Judit Alvarado at jsa@email.unc.edu.

Food Policy Councils (FPC): Warren County Food Councils actively support local government in policy- and systems-level work to re-structure local and regional economies around an overarching vision of a just, healthy, and sustainable food system. Though food councils have existed since the 1980s, recent years have witnessed a dramatic increase in their numbers. The Orange County Board of Commissioners defunded the Food Council in Orange County in December 2022. To learn more, contact Bill Kearney at bill_kearney@unc.edu or Molly DeMarco at molly_demarco@unc.edu.

Diversity Nurtures Achievements This community-designed program, located at a community youth center in greater Duplin County, provides a supportive and nurturing environment for youth participants and their families by teaching them academic and life skills, including opportunities for physical activity, nutrition, and agricultural education. If you would like to learn more, you can contact Gabby Statia at gabsta@email.unc.edu.

Golden Journeys  This community-designed program centers nutrition, health, and cultural wellness by providing learning and social engagement opportunities to rurally located older black women. To learn more, contact Gabby Statia at gabsta@email.unc.edu.

Design Thinking In 2020, FFORC launched Design Thinking for SNAP-Ed to explore the viability of this approach for SNAP-Ed and how it might be used to improve reach. Design thinking is a people-centered approach to learning about a problem and developing a solution using methods and tools that are flexible and adaptable. It also helps organizations work collaboratively with communities and individuals who are most impacted by the identified problem. We offer this service to community partners, organizations, government entities, and other academic institutions to support their community-engaged activities. To learn more, please contact Chanta’l Rose at crose33@unc.edu.

Participatory Grant Making (PGM)  After several years of planning, we launched our first round of Participatory Grant Making (PGM) community funding in 2024. PGM is a program that provides a democratic process that provides participants with decision-making power around the prioritization of projects funded, including the funding amounts, personalized opportunities for training and technical assistance, and the growth of peer learning and connection within the network of grantees. To learn more, contact Gabby Statia at gabsta@email.unc.edu or Brett Sheppard at brett_sheppard@unc.edu.

Where To Find Our Projects