Browsing by Author "Tran, Samuel"
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Item Comprehending Institutional Program Practices of Texas Food Distribution Organizations(2022-04-14) Sunkara, Neha; Tran, SamuelFood insecurity is briefly defined as experiencing the lack of or difficulty accessing affordable, nutritionally-dense foods. Providing food can be a stopgap measure, but ideally, food insecurity should be addressed in conjunction with health disparities. The goal of this ARC project is to conduct case studies on Texas food distribution organizations and evaluate institutional program practices that address food insecurity and health disparities together. The first stage of the project identifies two to four food distribution organizations across five Texas counties and collects publicly available information regarding their individual programs. The second stage involves creating a repository system with parameters for each program and developing a coding scheme using similarities identified among the facilities’ initiatives. Finally, a report will be produced that explains the coding scheme to identify key features of relevant programs and provide exemplars of each feature. This project will further evolve a more systematic relationship between food insecurity and health disparities within Texas food distribution organizations. Research from the administrators’ and food distribution organizations’ perspective is pertinent to comprehending how to better integrate food insecurity and health disparities together. Understanding significant characteristics among these individual programs can enhance the services they provide and better address the health of food-insecure clientele. Through this, a model program addressing both food insecurity and health disparities can be visualized.Item The Effect of COVID-19 on Third Ward Food Distribution Attendance(2022-04-14) Tran, SamuelFood insecurity is defined by the inability or lack of access to nutritious foods. To address these issues in the Third Ward of Houston, the University of Houston Bonner Leaders program operates student-run food distribution programs. The Food Insecurity Team, FIT, has partnered with the Houston Food Bank to run 3 distribution sites. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and its profound effects on the Third Ward community, FIT sought to determine whether or not the COVID-19 pandemic had negatively impacted food distribution attendance. Attendance and the amount of food distributed from one of these distribution sites were collected twice a month over 5 months during the second half of 2021. This data was then visualized in order to perform a graphical analysis. By analyzing this data overlaid with COVID-19 case counts in Harris County, we can see that case counts have a minimal impact on clientele attendance. The findings also demonstrate clientele attendance and the total amount of food distributed to be continually growing. These findings suggest that the Third Ward food distribution sites play an ever-increasing and impactful role in the community and to the individuals attending them.