Healthy Food Environments Initiative

Our mission is to promote community-wide approaches to prevent obesity and increase food security through healthy food environments and increased physical activity.

Research Group Goals

Our goal is to conduct research, promote programs and advocate for policies that improve access to healthy food and encourage opportunities for being physically active.  Healthy food environments include homes, corner grocery stores, restaurants, schools, health clinics, worksites and community programs.  We place a special emphasis on low-income, urban communities that have limited access to healthy, affordable food and limited opportunities for physical activity.  We conduct quantitative and qualitative research on food security, food access and obesity.

Research Projects

• Evaluating the Healthy Food Retailer Initiative
• Healthy Corner Store Initiative

About Us

Ann M. Ferris, Ph.D., R.D. is the Director of the Center for Public Health and Health Policy, and Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Public Health and Population Sciences, at the University of Connecticut Health Center. For more than a decade, Dr. Ferris' research has focused on community nutrition and building partnerships between the University and communities throughout Connecticut. She has received more than $12 million dollars in funding through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs from the USDA through the CT Department of Social Services.

Katie S. Martin, Ph.D., is one of the first recipients of the Connecticut Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (CICATS) K12 Awards for Mentored Research. CICATS was created in partnership with regional hospitals, state agencies, and community health care organizations to transform the way biomedical science is conceived, conducted, and disseminated in Connecticut. Dr. Martin had been a Research Associate with the Center for Public Health and Health Policy since 2005. She served as a program specialist in support of the Ph.D. programs in public health in addition to her research. Dr. Martin's research expertise is in food security, food assistance programs, obesity and social capital among low-income populations. Since 2006, she partnered with the Hartford Food System to help evaluate their “Healthy Food Retailer Initiative” (HFRI) to encourage small markets in Hartford to sell healthier items. The TRIPP Center, the Ethel Donaghue Center for Translating Research into Practice and Policy at UCONN Health Center, funded a formative project to examine the perceptions and barriers of buying and selling healthy food in small markets in Hartford. Focus groups with customers who shop at small markets, interviews with corner store merchants, and interviews with distributors who distribute food to small markets were conducted. This pilot program and partnership led to additional grant funding from the Donaghue Foundation in 2008 to compare stores participating in the HFRI with control stores. Forty stores joined the HFRI as of October 2008. Store owners agreed to shift 5% of their inventory away from “junk” food to healthier groceries. The results from this study led to the development of a program called "Husky Markets," which is part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education grant (USDA) which has focused on promoting lowfat milk consumption.   Dr. Martin earned a BA in Political Science from Indiana University, and a MS and Ph.D. from the School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.  Her research expertise is in food security, food assistance programs, obesity and social capital among low-income populations.

Erin K. Havens, MPA., recently earned a MPH, and is now employed as a health policy analyst at the Center for Public Health & Health Policy at the University of Connecticut.  She earned a BA in Political Science and a Masters in Public Administration from the Department of Public Policy at the University of Connecticut.  Erin's background includes health care advocacy, community organizing and coordinating election campaigns.  She assisted with community nutrition programs delivered through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly the Food Stamp Program) and was a key team member in evaluating the Healthy Food Retailer Initiative.