Building Capacity for Advocacy for Local Food Systems Change

216 Pages·2017·2.75 MB·English

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Theses and Dissertations
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Casey Denise Childers
University of South Carolina
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Childers, C. D.(2015). Building Capacity for Advocacy for Local Food Systems Change: An Ethnographic
Study Documenting the Process of Change in South Carolina Communities. (Doctoral dissertation).
Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/3605
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BUILDING CAPACITY FOR ADVOCACY FOR LOCAL FOOD SYSTEMS CHANGE: AN
ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY DOCUMENTING THE PROCESS OF CHANGE IN SOUTH
CAROLINA COMMUNITIES

by

Casey Denise Childers

Bachelor of Science
Appalachian State University, 2003

Master of Arts
University of Georgia, 2010

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in

Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior

Norman J. Arnold School of Public Health

University of South Carolina

2015

Accepted by:

Sonya Jones, Major Professor

James Thrasher, Committee Member

Brooke Weberling-McKeever, Committee Member

Pippen Whitaker, Committee Member

Lacy Ford, Vice Senior Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies
© Copyright by Casey Denise Childers, 2015
All Rights Reserved.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to dedicate this work first and foremost to my committee members,
who have guided me greatly throughout this process while allowing me the intellectual
freedom to pursue innovative research ideas. Particularly, many thanks to Dr. Sonya
Jones for her mentorship and guidance over the last four years and for allowing me to
work with such a great team on the COPASCities project. I also want to thank the
research community groups that opened up their minds and meetings to me to allow me
to do this work. Last but not least, I want to thank my family and friends for surrounding
me with support, love, and understanding throughout this process.

iii
ABSTRACT
The Guide to Community Preventive Services currently does not have sufficient
evidence to recommend any nutrition strategies for obesity prevention. Nonetheless, food
systems changes are recommended for childhood obesity prevention by the C.D.C.,
U.S.D.A., and many thought-leading organizations. Creating healthy food communities
will require physical and social environmental changes. Community-based groups need
to build their capacity to frame community health issues as physical and social
environmental issues. This research partnered with community-based groups to build
their capacity for advocacy by using media framing research and strategic
communications training. Specifically we: 1) conducted a media content about food
systems, childhood obesity and the link between them; 2) increased community-based
groups’ understanding of collective action framing and the social determinants of health
through planning an issues campaign; and 3) provided research, tools, facilitation, and
technical assistance to community based groups as they planned issue campaigns. In our
first manuscript, we described the process of increasing the advocacy capacity of a
community-based group using the tenets of collective action framing theory; described a
media content analysis and how we applied to practice through communications
trainings; and finally, how one community group grappled with re-framing food systems
change issues. In our second manuscript, we described the process of raising the
consciousness of a food system advocacy group, how we facilitated the definition of
group values, and tied their values to social justice and the advocacy work.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ iii
ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................... iv
LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................. vi
LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................ vii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................... viii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................1
CHAPTER 2 BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE ......................................................................4
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS ...................................................................31
CHAPTER 4: MANUSCRIPTS ..................................................................................................68
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS ...............................................................................................140
REFERENCES .....................................................................................................................148
APPENDIX A – S.C. MEDIA CODING ANALYSIS OF CHILDHOOD OBESITY ............................165
APPENDIX B – TOOLS AND RESOURCES ............................................................................195
APPENDIX C – ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF CHANGE ...........................................................207

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1 Variants of Frames and Framing Strategies .......................................................26
Table 3.1 Learning Objectives and Outcomes ...................................................................51
Table 4.1 Relationship of Consciousness, Values, and Action Types .............................132
Table 4.2 Capacity Building Program .............................................................................139

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1 Consequences of the Current Food System ........................................................9
Figure 3.1 Conceptual Framework ....................................................................................40
Figure 4.1 Timeline of M.F.A. Events ...............................................................................95
Figure 4.2 Timeline of T.O.H. .........................................................................................131
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
Center ........................................... Center for Research on Nutrition and Health Disparities
COPASCities .................... Childhood Obesity Prevention in South Carolina Communities
CDC .................................................................. Center for Disease Control and Prevention
G.M.O. ............................................................................... Genetically Modified Organism
M.F.A. ............................................................................................. Midlands Food Alliance
P.A.R. .................................................................................... Participatory Action Research
R.W.J. Foundation ..........................................................Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
S.C. ................................................................................................................ South Carolina
S.D.O.H…………………………………………………….Social Determinants of Health
S.N.A.P………………………………………Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
T.O.H…………………………………………………………………The Organic Helpers
U.S.D.A. ................................................................. United State Department of Agriculture
U.S.C………………………………………………………...University of South Carolina
W.H.O. ....................................................................................... World Health Organization
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
The Guide to Community Preventive Services currently does not have sufficient
evidence to recommend any nutrition strategies for childhood obesity prevention (Guide
to Community Preventive Services, 2014). The World Health Organization (W.H.O.),
Center for Disease Control and Prevention (C.D.C.), and leaders in public health research
recommend focusing on policy, systems and environmental changes that support healthy
weight in childhood as the most promising public health approach to childhood obesity
prevention (Brennan, Castro, Brownson, Claus & Orleans, 2011; Koplan, Liverman &
Kraak, 2005; Marmot, Friel, Bell, Houweling & Taylor, 2008; Swinburn, 2009;
Wilkinson & Marmot, 2011; People, 2011).
To date, community-based trials have been effective at reducing the prevalence of
obesity. Each of these trials has in two common strategies: community engagement and
capacity-building (Economos et al. 2007; Sanigorski, Bell & Kremer, Cuttler &
Swinburn, 2008; Taylor et al., 2007). None of the trials described what capacity building
or engagement strategies were used in detail. In this study, we provided rich detail about
the process of engaging those groups within communities at greatest risk of childhood
obesity to build their capacity to re-frame the debate around childhood obesity.
The research described in this dissertation is part of a study (Childhood Obesity
Prevention in South Carolina Communities (COPASCities)) that seeks to build the
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