Project Number: 6251-53000-004-33
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 01, 2003
End Date: Aug 31, 2008

Objective:
A primary objective of the Lower Mississippi Delta Nutrition Intervention Research Initiative (Delta NIRI) Consortium mission being conducted in part under this cooperative agreement is to develop sustainable nutrition intervention strategies in the Lower Mississippi Delta (LMD) through community-based participatory research (CBPR). A specific objective of this cooperative project is to establish and support a cooperative partnership between the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College represented by the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center (AgCenter) through its Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service (LCES), which will work with ARS and other Delta NIRI partners to coordinate, assist, design, organize, support, interpret, and evaluate community-based participatory nutrition intervention research established within Franklin Parish, Louisiana, (Franklin NIRI), to evaluate nutritional health, identify nutritionally responsive problems, and develop and evaluate nutrition interventions which are sustainable at the community level to prevent obesity and achieve improved nutritional status of children and families in the LMD region of Louisiana.

Approach:
The LSU AgCenter will appoint an Assistant/Associate Professor and Specialist in Community Nutrition in the School of Human Ecology at LSU AgCenter who will work part time on the project in the Northeast Region. The AgCenter will also appoint a local Extension agent with an office at the Scott Research and Extension Center in Franklin Parish to work part time on the project. Both persons will support nutrition intervention research initiatives in the Franklin Parish community and will work with the Franklin NIRI and with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), and other Delta NIRI Consortium partners to conduct, support, and facilitate nutrition intervention research to prevent obesity and improve the nutritional health of the Franklin Parish community. In addition they will collaborate on other mutually agreed nutrition related research in other areas of the LMD in Louisiana. Following implementation and evaluation of these nutrition intervention research strategies in the Franklin Parish community, the Delta NIRI Consortium, with cooperation from the AgCenter Community Nutrition Specialist and Agent, will publish the research results in peer-reviewed journals, identify successful intervention strategies, evaluate the impact of community participation, and determine specific characteristics of the community that contributed to intervention success. Additionally, the AgCenter Community Nutrition Specialist and Agent will work cooperatively with Delta NIRI and other AgCenter personnel, key stakeholders, community leaders, school personnel and civic leaders to establish strong and sustainable community nutrition and health programs in selected parishes in the Delta.