Forms of Community Engagement in Neighborhood Food Retail: Healthy Community Stores Case Study Project

Ravneet Kaur, Megan R. Winkler, Sara John, Julia DeAngelo, Rachael D. Dombrowski, Ashley Hickson, Samantha M. Sundermeir, Christina M. Kasprzak, Bree Bode, Alex B. Hill, Emma C. Lewis, Uriyoan Colon-Ramos, Jake Munch, Lillian L. Witting, Angela Odoms-Young, Joel Gittelsohn and Lucia A. Leone
Additional contact information
Ravneet Kaur: Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Rockford, IL 61107, USA
Megan R. Winkler: Department of Behavioral, Social and Health Education Sciences, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, 1518 Clifton Rd, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
Sara John: Center for Science in the Public Interest, 1250 I St NW, Floor 5, Washington, DC 20005, USA
Julia DeAngelo: Departments of Health Policy Management & Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Rachael D. Dombrowski: Division of Kinesiology, Health and Sport Studies, College of Education, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA
Ashley Hickson: Center for Science in the Public Interest, 1250 I St NW, Floor 5, Washington, DC 20005, USA
Samantha M. Sundermeir: Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
Christina M. Kasprzak: Department of Community Health and Health Behavior, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA
Bree Bode: Division of Kinesiology, Health and Sport Studies, College of Education, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA
Alex B. Hill: Urban Studies and Planning and Detroit Food Map Initiative, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA
Emma C. Lewis: Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
Uriyoan Colon-Ramos: Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, 950 New Hampshire Avenue, Washington, DC 20052, USA
Jake Munch: School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 75080, USA
Lillian L. Witting: Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, 950 New Hampshire Avenue, Washington, DC 20052, USA
Angela Odoms-Young: Division of Nutritional Science, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
Joel Gittelsohn: Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
Lucia A. Leone: Department of Community Health and Health Behavior, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 12, 1-13

Abstract: Community engagement is well established as a key to improving public health. Prior food environment research has largely studied community engagement as an intervention component, leaving much unknown about how food retailers may already engage in this work. The purpose of this study was to explore the community engagement activities employed by neighborhood food retailers located in lower-income communities with explicit health missions to understand the ways stores involve and work with their communities. A multiple case study methodology was utilized among seven retailers in urban U.S. settings, which collected multiple sources of data at each retailer, including in-depth interviews, store manager sales reports, store observations using the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey for Stores, public documents, and websites. Across-case analysis was performed following Stake’s multiple case study approach. Results indicated that retailers employed a wide variety of forms of community engagement within their communities, including Outreach, Building Relationships through Customer Relations, Giving Back, Partnering with Community Coalitions, and Promoting Community Representation and Inclusiveness. Strategies that built relationships through customer relations were most common across stores; whereas few stores demonstrated community inclusiveness where members participated in store decision making. Findings provide a more comprehensive view of the ways local food retailers aim to develop and sustain authentic community relationships. Additional research is needed to evaluate the impact of community engagement activities on improving community health.

Keywords: community engagement; case study approach; cross-case analysis; healthy food retail; retail food environment; community food stores (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/6986/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/6986/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:12:p:6986-:d:833384

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().