BUFFALO, N.Y. – With nearly $800,000 in funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), researchers from the University at Buffalo are beginning on a project that aims to explore the connections between data equity and food equity.

The three-year project, which received a grant of $795,000 from RWJF, will be led by the Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab (Food Lab) in UB’s School of Architecture and Planning and co-produced by academic and community researchers. Together, they aim to conduct case studies of existing community-facing dashboards for food systems, and develop guidelines for how to advance data equity for food equity.

“Exploring the relationship of data equity to food equity is essential to uncovering systemic disparities and creating solutions that ensure everyone has access to nutritious, affordable food,” says Julia Czerniak, dean of UB’s School of Architecture and Planning. “This grant underscores our faculty’s commitment to not only advancing research and innovation within our institution, but to empower communities.”

The UB Food Lab will also convene a virtual learning network of communities with experience in building food system dashboards (Communities of Equitable Innovation) and those aspiring to build community-centered food system dashboards (Communities of Equitable Opportunity). Representatives of communities interested in joining the learning network as COEIs or COEOs are invited to express their interest by writing to foodsystemsplanning@ap.buffalo.edu.

Food inequity persists in part because of data and information asymmetry in the food system. Inequitable access to and control over data carries significant consequences for the timeliness and quality of food- and health-related resources distributed to marginalized populations, especially during crises.

While researchers, governments and philanthropic organizations have attempted to close this data gap through designing and launching food system data dashboards, several challenges remain. Data may not represent the food-related aspirations, challenges, or solutions that community residents find meaningful.

“Data equity is essential because it helps to ensure the power of information serves everyone fairly. Bridging data gaps empowers communities that have historically been overlooked and gives voice to those who are often ‘written about’ without being consulted,” says Jaime Swygert founder of the Juneteenth Agricultural Pavilion and a food equity leader in Buffalo.

Prioritizing inclusivity in data practices creates systems that drive better decisions, foster trust, and lead to more just outcomes for all, she adds.

“The failure to assess, track and monitor the conditions in communities’ food systems in a meaningful way undermines food equity,” says Swygert. “Yet, emerging efforts to assess, track and monitor food systems data also pose challenges for data governance and data democracy that have been largely overlooked both in literature and public policy. This project aims to investigate the challenges and opportunities for promoting data equity within the constructs of food equity.”

In addition, data collection processes may result in surveillance of people, undermining their privacy and freedom. Data may not always provide community residents with meaningful information they need to make changes in their own communities. As data are standardized and scaled up — from city to national to global scales — data dashboards may fail to capture and represent the complexity of daily lived practices of people. And most importantly, community ownership and control over use of data may be contested.

Maryam Khojasteh, RWJF program officer, notes that the foundation “has a commitment to support initiatives that work toward transforming our public health data systems by elevating who the data we collect elevates, who is being centered in our data, who is being excluded, and why. Our current data systems are divorced from history and community conditions, which have led to narratives that misrepresent communities, undermine their assets, and make their distinct needs invisible.”

Khojasteh adds that “This partnership with the UB Food Lab will be an important step in understanding what it takes to create people-centered data dashboards where the end result could inform a more equitable and systematic approach to reduce food inequities.”

The UB team includes faculty affiliates and staff of the Food Lab (Alissa Ujie Diamond, Alexandra Judelsohn, Kate Hays and Samina Raja), Built Environment and Visualization Laboratory (Mohamed Aly Etman), and UB Regional Institute (Brian Conley, Bartholomew Roberts and Teresa Bosch de Celis). Community advisors include Elizabeth Gosch, Domonique Griffin, Diane Picard, Nathaniel Mich, Fardowsa Nor and Jaime Swygert.