NSF Convergence Accelerator Track J: Artificial-Intelligence-Based Decision Support for Equitable Food and Nutrition Security in the Houston Area

Disadvantaged communities continue to be afflicted with health issues due to limited access to nutritious food and inadequate knowledge about healthy food choices. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these issues. One of the most critical steps in addressing food insecurity is to improve understanding of the resources required and the challenges faced in procurement, distribution, access, and utilization of food resources in underserved communities.

On the demand side, stakeholders must identify the nutritional needs, cultural preferences, and food preparation equipment and supplies of food-insecure households. If an individual does not know what a particular food is nor how to prepare it, it will go to waste, and the efforts of the food charity ecosystem will fail. On the supply side, stakeholders must streamline logistics and improve communication and coordination to optimize the supply chain (upstream procurement and downstream distribution) to minimize inefficiencies and coordinate the efforts of various food charities.

Through a community-driven approach, this project brings together civic collaborators with university researchers to develop and build a locally-oriented food charity ecosystem based on data-driven smart technologies in the Greater Houston region. Our socio-technical approach addresses four overall research questions: (1) How can we redefine, model, and predict food deserts? (2) How can we minimize food waste? (3) How can we impact nutrition literacy? (4) How can we measure the health effects of having access to culturally appropriate nutritious food?

These questions drive the following objectives: (i) Assess, model, and predict geographic areas with limited access to affordable and nutritious food; (ii) Analyze communities to find untapped strengths in preparing culturally appropriate recipes and transfer this knowledge to like-minded community members, (iii) Build infrastructure for food pantries to provide culturally appropriate food they have in stock and recipes/food preparation instructions, (iv) Create a blockchain-based marketplace for food donations, (v) Develop educational material in multiple languages and partner with Community Health Workers to disseminate it, and (vi) Measure the health effects of having access to culturally appropriate nutritious food.

Our multidisciplinary team brings together researchers in computer science, urban planning, community engagement, nutrition education/community healthy lifestyle program development, supply chain, measurement and evaluation, and a diverse set of “on the ground” practitioner partners. Our team is focused on turning research into action. The decision-making tools will be disseminated to other food ecosystem members to address all aspects of culturally aware food distribution.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.