Our Work

To respond to sustained high rates of food insecurity, food supply chain disruptions, and disproportionate impacts related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the State of Washington via the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) has asked the University of Washington to conduct an assessment of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and risks affecting Washington’s food system, with...

Project Lead/PI: Jennifer Otten

Research Area(s): Food Access, Food Systems & Nutrition

Through interviews and surveys of farmers, ranchers, agricultural service providers, and other stakeholders, the project team is seeking to better understand the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on farms and ranches in Washington State, and the capacity of farm businesses to adapt to the disruption. Key to understanding these dynamics is the online WA Farm...

Project Lead/PI: Sarah Collier

Research Area(s): Food Systems & Nutrition

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated barriers to participation in the WIC program, since people were encouraged or required to stay home and grocery stores experienced shortages of food items. Washington State’s WIC program has been actively re-tooling service delivery prior to and at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic to overcome participation barriers. This project...

Project Lead/PI: Jennifer Otten

Research Area(s): Food Access

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities and their main sources of economic support. Tribal reservations have seen higher infection rates compared to neighboring areas and the closure of gaming and hospitality businesses has removed some of the vital economic lifelines. Many tribal communities are struggling to meet basic food needs,...

Project Lead/PI: Jennifer Otten

Research Area(s): Food Access

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted multiple components of the food system: food production and food supply chains were destabilized, consumer purchasing power was greatly reduced for many, and new challenges appeared across sectors that persist today. There remains a high need for public assistance programs and food from local food banks. Food systems are changing, perhaps forever, and the...

Project Lead/PI: Adam Drewnowski

Research Area(s): Food Access, Food Systems & Nutrition

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awarded Public Health – Seattle & King County (PHSKC) a 5 year cooperative agreement to undertake sodium reduction efforts within King County. Through this project, PHSKC will address the barriers and challenges our communities face in healthy eating by implementing lasting and sustainable sodium reduction efforts...

Project Lead/PI: Jessica Jones-Smith

Research Area(s): Food & Nutrition Policy, Social Determinants of Health

This project evaluates the effectiveness of sugar-sweetened beverage taxes in three U.S. cities, studying specifically: Quantifying the magnitude of tax payment regressivity in each of three large US cities (Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle) that have implemented SSB taxes. Assessing the global economic impacts of SSB tax policy in two ways: 1) by estimating the amount of...

Project Lead/PI: Jessica Jones-Smith

Research Area(s): Food & Nutrition Policy

This study explored aspects of the “protein transition” in two SE Asian countries at different levels of economic development: Malaysia and Indonesia. The study was specifically developed to understand the social aspect of the nutrition transition using qualitative and quantitative methods. Largely based on social sciences, the study will provide valuable additional insight to classical...

Project Lead/PI: Adam Drewnowski

Research Area(s): Global Nutrition, Social Determinants of Health

Professor Jennifer Otten and doctoral candidate James Buszkiewicz lead various sub-components of The Minimum Wage Study including examining the pass-through effects of a local minimum wage policy on supermarket food prices using field-based data collection, analyzing how state variation in minimum wage affects health outcomes using National Health Interview Survey and Bureau of Labor Statistics...

Project Lead/PI: Jennifer Otten

Research Area(s): Food & Nutrition Policy, Social Determinants of Health

This study aims at exploring the impact of water flows on rice cultivation and fisheries in Cambodia which will be used as an example of how three critical issues- feeding people, generating energy and maintaining functioning ecosystems — can be addressed thoughtfully and progressively in the developing world. The team will study the relationship between...

Project Lead/PI: Adam Drewnowski

Research Area(s): Global Nutrition

This study explores the impact of changing residential environment on health outcomes. The study uses well-characterized longitudinal cohort of health care users, confined to well described geographic area of WA State. By attaching a geographic context to anonymized electronic medical records (EMR) for over 320,000 adults (30,000 with Type 2 Diabetes (T2D)) and 90,000 children...

Project Lead/PI: Adam Drewnowski

Research Area(s): Social Determinants of Health

This project measures the economic impact of City of Seattle spending on food access programs on local farmers, and on the local farm economy. The purpose of this report is to measure the economic impact of City of Seattle spending on food access programs on local farmers, and on the local farm economy. This analysis...

Project Lead/PI: Adam Drewnowski

Research Area(s): Food Access

CPHN is a subcontractor with the Washington State Department of Health to help provide training and technical assistance to the state’s early care and education (ECE) system. The project aims to provide support for physical activity and nutrition best-practices in ECE settings with online STARS* trainings for ECE providers and additional trainings and materials for...

Project Lead/PI: Jennifer Otten

Research Area(s): Early Care & Education

Reducing obesity disparities could greatly reduce health disparities by race/ethnicity for the leading cause of death in the U.S., cardiovascular disease. Therefore, it is critical to understand the systemic causes of disparities in obesity prevalence between racial/ethnic minority adults and children, compared to their white counterparts. Precarious employment, which is often characterized by low wages,...

Project Lead/PI: Vanessa Oddo

Research Area(s): Social Determinants of Health

Restaurants are a key element of the food environment. Americans will likely spend more than $1 trillion at restaurants in 2019 (up from $825 billion in 2018). Restaurants spend billions of dollars annually in advertising to attract customers ($6.3B in 2015), and – on a typical day, one-third of Americans will eat at a fast...

Project Lead/PI: Jessica Jones-Smith

Research Area(s): Social Determinants of Health

Small farm businesses have found profit in direct-to-market sales, but often find that they need better marketing and promotion support in order to sustain and amplify that profit. King Conservation District (KCD) and key stakeholders identified direct marketing support for farmers as a 2018 strategic initiative area for investment and contracted with the University of...

Project Lead/PI: Jennifer Otten

Research Area(s): Food Systems & Nutrition

On the US West Coast, rich and underutilized fishery resources exist alongside low income, nutritionally vulnerable populations. This pilot project aimed to examine the potential scope and mechanisms for improved utilization of available seafood to improve diets and reduce incidence of non-communicable disease burdens in poor and marginalized US coastal communities. It had the following...

Project Lead/PI: Jennifer Otten

Research Area(s): Food Access, Food Systems & Nutrition, Global Nutrition, Social Determinants of Health

In June 2017, the City of Seattle passed an Ordinance to impose a 1.75-cent-per-ounce tax on sugary beverages. The ordinance that created the Sweetened Beverage Tax also required the City to work with academic researchers to assess the impact of the tax (Ordinance 125324, Section 5B). We have proposed to evaluate the impact of this...

Project Lead/PI: Jessica Jones-Smith

Research Area(s): Food & Nutrition Policy, Social Determinants of Health

Investigators are evaluating how wage and wage changes might affect the culture of health in early childhood education (ECE) settings —a setting typically characterized by low wages. The researchers are examining how changes to state and city minimum wages affect the health of ECE providers, and how ECE provider health relates to the quality and...

Project Lead/PI: Jennifer Otten

Research Area(s): Early Care & Education, Food & Nutrition Policy, Social Determinants of Health

The Collaborative on Obesity Research & Action (CORA) is a consortium of Seattle-area scientists who study, treat, and prevent obesity and related chronic diseases. Our members are based at the University of Washington, Children’s Research Institute, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, VA Puget Sound, and Kaiser Permanente Washington Research Institute. CORA is convened by Jessica...

Project Lead/PI: Jessica Jones-Smith

Research Area(s): Social Determinants of Health

Heart disease and stroke are the second and fifth leading causes of death in King County, Washington. Consuming less sodium is one recommendation for reducing hypertension, a leading risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Unfortunately, most people consume much more sodium than dietary guidelines currently recommend even before accounting for particular health conditions. The...

Project Lead/PI: Jessica Jones-Smith

Research Area(s): Food & Nutrition Policy

Livable City Year works with cities, counties, tribes and special districts of all sizes and budgets. Our partnerships can have a broad range of timelines and scopes based on community needs. Hundreds of students benefit by tackling real-world challenges. Partner cities benefit from bold and applied ideas that propel fresh thinking, improve livability for residents,...

Project Lead/PI: Jennifer Otten

Research Area(s): Food Systems & Nutrition

Early care and learning environments are increasingly recognized as critical factors in the health, development, and wellbeing of young children. The estimated 2.2 million people employed in early care and education (ECE) in the US, however, represent a highly vulnerable working population. ECE providers receive relatively low pay, have few job-related benefits, and are disproportionately...

Project Lead/PI: Jennifer Otten

Research Area(s): Early Care & Education

One barrier to healthy eating for people with low incomes can be the cost of healthy foods like fruits and vegetables. The Washington State Department of Health has implemented a statewide large-scale Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (FINI) initiative since 2015 to make it easier for low-income participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to...

Project Lead/PI: Jennifer Otten

Research Area(s): Food & Nutrition Policy, Food Access

This study builds off of the previous studies (Seattle Obesity Study I and Seattle Obesity Study II), to assess whether social, economic, and environmental variables are related to diet, physical activity, and health behaviors over a 24-month period. The study population examines a diverse sample of adults across three geographically distinct counties in WA state...

Project Lead/PI: Adam Drewnowski

Research Area(s): Social Determinants of Health

This project is part of a comprehensive evaluation of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and American Heart Association’s Voices for Healthy Kids Initiative. We will identify and analyze state childhood obesity legislation that was introduced and/or enacted during calendar year 2017, the fourth year after the Voices for Healthy Kids Initiative awarded its first grant....

Project Lead/PI: Jessica Jones-Smith

Research Area(s): Food & Nutrition Policy

This multi-state project explored the relationship between dietary energy density, diet costs, and actual food expenditures in two groups: 120 middle-income men and women in Seattle and 120 low-income women from four California counties. Studies in Seattle developed a new tool to estimate individual diet costs, using local supermarket prices, California food prices and mean...

Project Lead/PI: Adam Drewnowski

Research Area(s): Social Determinants of Health

Develop ways to offer dietary advice that takes food preferences, usual eating habits, and financial limitations into account. Helping low-income consumers obtain high-quality diets at an affordable cost may be the key strategy for stemming the obesity epidemic among the disadvantaged groups.

Project Lead/PI: Adam Drewnowski

Research Area(s): Food Systems & Nutrition, Social Determinants of Health

The PLAN research project examines the effects of legislation that required school districts to develop nutrition and physical activity policies. Washington State Senate Bill 5436 required all public school districts to develop a nutrition and fitness policy by the start of the 2005-06 school year. In addition school districts that participate in the national USDA...

Project Lead/PI: Donna B. Johnson

Research Area(s): Food & Nutrition Policy