Early impact of a new food store intervention on health-related outcomes.

This study investigated the early impact of a community-based food intervention, the Good Food Junction (GFJ), a full-service grocery store (September 2012 - January 2016) in a former food desert in Saskatoon, Canada. The hypothesis tested was that frequent shopping at the GFJ improved food security and selected health-related outcomes among shoppers, and the impact was moderated by socioeconomic factors. Longitudinal data were collected from 156 GFJ shoppers, on three occasions: 12-, 18-, and 24-months post-opening.

"I Would Have My Children Participate IF …": Perceptions of Canadian Caregivers Towards School Food Programs.

The Canadian federal government has expressed an intention to work with provinces and territories to develop a national school food program (SFP). This study aimed to explore caregivers' perception of attributes important to include in a future SFP. An online cross-sectional survey was conducted.

An examination of willingness to participate and willingness to pay for a universal school food program in the Canadian context.

Objective: To examine parents'/caregivers' willingness to participate and willingness to pay (WTP) for a cost-shared school food program (SFP) and its associated factors.

Design: A quantitative survey design was used where WTP for a hypothetical SFP was elicited using a double-bounded dichotomous choice elicitation method. We used a double hurdle (logistic and truncated regression) model to examine WTP and positively or negatively associated factors.

Factors contributing to school food program acceptance: a Review of Canadian literature.

Diet quality and food security are a concern in school-aged children in Canada. In 2019, the Canadian federal government announced the intention to work towards a national school food program. Understanding the factors that impact school food program acceptability can inform planning to ensure that students are willing to participate.

Employing the equity lens to understand multisectoral partnerships: lessons learned from a mixed-method study in Canada.

Background: Multisectoral approaches to health are collaborations between stakeholders across multiple sectors, usually formed to address issues that affect health but go beyond the purview of one particular sector. The significance of multisectoral partnerships to attain health equity has been widely acknowledged. However, the extent which equity can be attained depends upon the perceptions of various stakeholders.

A need for multi-sector and multi-pronged solutions to address the many barriers inhibiting change from unhealthy food environments in publicly funded recreation facilities: a mixed-method study.

Public recreation facilities are preferred gathering places for families to participate in physical, social, intellectual, and creative pursuits, and the importance of food environments in these facilities is gaining recognition. Evidence from other Canadian jurisdictions describes such food environments as unsupportive of health, which contradicts national recreation priorities to have healthy choices as the easy choices. This study aimed to characterize food environments in a convenient sample of Saskatchewan public recreation facilities.

Food Security of Temporary Foreign Farm Workers under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program in Canada and the United States: A Scoping Review.

Temporary foreign farm workers (TFWs) are among the most vulnerable and exploitable groups. Recent research shows alarming rates of food insecurity among them. This review explores research focussing on food security of TFWs in Canada and the United States, summarizes findings, and identifies research gaps.

Correction: The Good Food for Learning Universal Curriculum-Integrated Healthy School Lunch Intervention: Protocol for a Two-Year Matched Control Pre-Post and Case Study.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.2196/30899.].

The Good Food for Learning Universal Curriculum-Integrated Healthy School Lunch Intervention: Protocol for a Two-Year Matched Control Pre-Post and Case Study.

Background: Good nutrition affects children's health, well-being, and learning, and schools offer an important setting to promote healthy behaviors that can last a lifetime. Once children reach school age, they spend more of their waking hours in school than in any other environment. Children's eating habits may be easier to influence than those of adults.

Evaluation of the impact of the Healthy Start/Départ Santé intervention on improving menu planning practices and improving the congruence between planned menus and actual food served in Saskatchewan childcare centres.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of the Healthy Start/Départ Santé (HS/DS) intervention program on improving menu planning practices and improving the congruence between planned menus and actual food served in licensed childcare centres in Saskatchewan. Overall, 39 licensed childcare centres in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada, were selected through a cluster randomized control trial to evaluate the impact of the HS/DS intervention. The pre and post intervention food menus of these centres were analyzed and compared to the Saskatchewan Childcare Nutrition Guidelines (SCNG).

Improving health through multisectoral collaboration: enablers and barriers.

Objective: Multisectoral partnerships (MPs) are increasingly viewed as an excellent strategy for promoting population health, although the Canadian evidence on MPs remains scant. The objective of this research was to identify enablers and barriers to multisectoral collaboration across three MPs (focused on food systems, urban development, and active transportation) in a Canadian urban centre.

Methods: This study is part of a pan-Canadian research program-MUSE (Multisectoral Urban Systems for health and Equity in Canadian cities).

A Nutrition Intervention to Promote the Consumption of Pulse-Based Foods in Childcare Centers: Protocol for a Multimethod Study.

Background: Plant-based foods, including pulses (dry beans, lentils, chickpeas, and peas), have gained worldwide attention owing to their health and environmental benefits. Despite high production, the consumption of pulses is low in Canada. Behavior change interventions systematically designed to promote the consumption of pulse-based foods are scarce.

Comparing Diet Quality of School Meals versus Food Brought from Home.

Consuming nutritious food is essential to learning. The purpose of this research was to determine the diet quality of elementary school lunches, both those in meal programs and those bringing food from home, in urban and rural locations in Saskatchewan. Using a School Food Checklist and digital photography we compared food group servings and diet quality in 3 school types: urban schools with a meal program and urban and rural schools without a meal program.

Effectiveness of the Healthy Start-Départ Santé approach on physical activity, healthy eating and fundamental movement skills of preschoolers attending childcare centres: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Since young children spend approximately 30 h per week in early childcare centres (ECC), this setting is ideal to foster healthy behaviours. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of the Healthy Start-Départ Santé (HSDS) randomized controlled trial in increasing physical activity (PA) levels and improving healthy eating and fundamental movement skills in preschoolers attending ECC.

Methods: Sixty-one ECC were randomly selected and allocated to either the usual practice (n = 30; n = 433 children) or intervention group (n = 31; n = 464 children).

An Examination of Failed Grocery Store Interventions in Former Food Deserts.

. Implementing food stores in deprived neighborhoods to improve access to healthy food is a debated topic. .

Facilitators and Barriers toward Food Security of Afghan Refugees Residing in Karachi, Pakistan.

The present study comparatively assesses how Afghan refugees in Pakistan understand both the factors and barriers affecting their food security status before and after refuge. Through qualitative in-depth interviews with 25 Afghan refugee families, we assess how quality of life, together with perceptions of a balanced meal, food environments both pre- and post-migration and push and pull factors of migration, impact food security and food choices for refugee families. Furthermore, our results reveal that regardless of the length of protracted status for Afghan refugees, food insecurity remains as a consistent condition for refugee families.

Lessons Learned From a Food Environment Intervention Study: Recruitment and Retention of Participants in Disadvantaged Urban Inner-City Neighborhoods.

Growing health inequities have led to calls for population health intervention research that can contribute to improving the health of marginalized populations, but conducting research with these communities can be challenging. When research aims to examine and understand an aspect of health in a population characterized as hard-to-reach or marginalized, recruitment techniques appear to have a significant impact on participation and sample retention in longitudinal studies. We examine and comment on the recruitment and retention techniques used in the Good Food, Healthy Families study conducted in low-income, inner-city neighborhoods in a midsized Canadian city; we hope that this will inform recruitment and retention approaches for population health intervention studies in similar populations.

Lunch is ready… but not healthy: An analysis of lunches served in childcare centres in two Canadian provinces.

Objectives: Childcare centres (CCs) typically offer one meal and snacks daily. This study compared what is served in CCs with what the nutritional recommendations are; described and compared the nutritional composition of lunches served in CCs in New Brunswick and Saskatchewan; and examined differences between French and English, and urban and rural centres.

Methods: The study involved 61 randomly selected CCs in New Brunswick and Saskatchewan, Canada.

Health-related outcomes of new grocery store interventions: a systematic review.

Objective: To assess the evidence of the impact of new food store (supermarket/grocery store) interventions on selected health-related outcomes.

Design: A systematic review following the Effective Public Health Practice Project guidelines. All quantitative studies were assessed for their methodological quality.

Association between childcare educators' practices and preschoolers' physical activity and dietary intake: a cross-sectional analysis.

Introduction: Childcare educators may be role models for healthy eating and physical activity (PA) behaviours among young children. This study aimed to identify which childcare educators' practices are associated with preschoolers' dietary intake and PA levels.

Methods: This cross-sectional analysis included 723 preschoolers from 50 randomly selected childcare centres in two Canadian provinces.

Understanding Women's Choice of Mastectomy Versus Breast Conserving Therapy in Early-Stage Breast Cancer.

Objective: To identify factors that influence Saskatchewan women's choice between breast conserving therapy (BCT) and mastectomy in early-stage breast cancer (ESBC) and to compare and contrast underlying reasons behind choice of BCT versus mastectomy.

Methods: Interpretive description methods guided this practice-based qualitative study. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis and presented in thematic maps.

Retail food environments research: Promising future with more work to be done.

As members of the scientific committee for the Food Environments in Canada conference, we reflect on the current state of food environments research in Canada. We are very encouraged that the field is growing and there have been many collaborative efforts to link researchers in Canada, including the 2015 Food Environments in Canada Symposium and Workshop. We believe there are 5 key challenges the field will need to collectively address: theory and causality; replication and extension; consideration of rural, northern and vulnerable populations; policy analysis; and intervention research.

Walkable home neighbourhood food environment and children's overweight and obesity: Proximity, density or price?

Objectives: To identify characteristics of the food environment associated with child overweight/obesity that could, if subjected to intervention, mitigate the risk of childhood overweight/obesity. We examined whether the proximity to or density of grocery and convenience stores or fast food restaurants, or the prices of healthy food options were more strongly associated with overweight/obesity risk in children.

Methods: We collected geocoded data by residential addresses for 1,469 children aged 10-14 years and conducted a census of all food outlets in Saskatoon.

Retail food environments research in Canada: A scoping review.

Objectives: The field of retail food environments research is relatively new in Canada. The objective of this scoping review is to provide an overview of retail food environments research conducted before July 2015 in Canada. Specifically, this review describes research foci and key findings, identifies knowledge gaps and suggests future directions for research.