Project Number: 6251-53000-004-39
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 01, 2004
End Date: Aug 31, 2009

Objective:
The objective of this cooperative research project is to evaluate the nutritional health in the Lower Mississippi Delta, to identify nutritionally responsive problems, and to design and evaluate interventions that may be sustained at the community level and implemented on a larger scale in similar areas of the United States.

Approach:
Developing capacity as necessary, the Lower Mississippi Delta Nutrition Intervention Research Initiative (Delta NIRI) Consortium will identify environmental and community characteristics related to nutritional status; measure dietary intake; assess nutritional risk factors; design, conduct, and evaluate interventions in the Lower Mississippi Delta. Southern University & A&M College (SU) Center of Excellence for Food, Nutrition, and Health Promotion (COE-FNHP) specifically will support community-based participatory research in Franklin Parish, LA, and other sites as mutually agreed upon. In addition, the Center will support dietary intake and food consumption assessments of the research investigations and activities of the Delta NIRI, design and test culturally appropriate nutrition intervention strategies to reduce food insecurity in the rural Lower Mississippi Delta (LMD) of low income children and their families. Further, the Center will explore establishment of a graduate school in nutritional sciences at SU.