University Project Focuses on Caswell County Local Food

Starting this September, a team of students from UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health will be working on a project in Caswell County to increase access to local food. The students are in their second year of the Masters of Public Health program and are required to complete a year-long “Capstone” field training. This project helps the students to acquire important skills in researching, planning, developing, implementing and evaluating health programs. 

The team in Caswell will be partnering with the Community Transformation Grant Project (CTG Project) and the Community Nutrition Partnership (CNP) to develop a pilot program that will increase access to local food for all residents in Caswell County. “Despite the county’s rich agricultural history, there is an immense need and desire on the behalf of Caswell County residents to consume local healthy food,” said Annie Martinie, CTG Project employee. The developed program will work to make purchasing local food convenient and affordable, while also providing educational resources on the benefits of eating healthy foods and ways to prepare fresh produce. 

As part of the project, planning is underway to expand a CNP program called the Veggie Van. This program brings boxes of fresh North Carolina grown fruits and vegetables to communities that might not otherwise have access to enough healthy foods. It also provides cooking demonstrations, nutrition information and recipes to help people cook healthy meals with their produce. The UNC students will work with community members, city and county administration, local farmers and food advocates to customize the Veggie Van program to meet the unique challenges of Caswell County. 

The project will begin in September with a community assessment that will look at current opportunities to purchase healthy, local food. The Veggie Van model will then be changed to fit the county’s needs and marketing about the new program will take place. The Veggie-Van kick-off event is currently planned for next April.

“We are excited to be able to work with the Capstone team on this project,” said Martinie. “We are going to make sure that Caswell residents are kept informed on the progress and are able to assist us in increasing the access to county grown food.”