Community Nutrition

Importance of Community Nutrition 

Diet-related illnesses including cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers are the leading source of poor health in the United States. These illnesses also negatively affect worker productivity, military readiness, healthcare spending, and health disparities. Food insecurity and diet-related illnesses often co-exist. Both are interrelated with challenges and opportunities in the use of natural resources. Major community level barriers influence healthy food access. Across all life stages, research, education, extension, and innovation could potentially improve our understanding of how community level interventions could contribute to optimal health and wellbeing.

Community nutrition focuses on promoting health and wellbeing by integrating interpersonal and community level interventions. To foster a foundation in the targeted community’s assets and opportunities, community nutrition brings together distinct parts of the community infrastructure including but not limited to the local and regional food systems including farm organizations, farmers markets, community and school gardens, local food retail, nutrition education programs, cooperative extension services, as well as local and state public health departments, the healthcare sector such as local allied health professionals, insurance companies, and hospitals, in addition to housing, transportation, along with senior centers, childcare centers, and schools. Often, community nutrition uses community-based participatory research or other engagement approaches to foster collaborative partnerships and processes around creating, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining local solutions to improve the nutrition and health status of participating individuals and households within the targeted community. 

NIFA’s Impact 

NIFA recognizes nutrition as a cost-effective approach to address many of the societal, environmental, and economic issues faced across the globe today. NIFA works to ensure a safe, nutritious, and secure food supply while also developing, delivering, and disseminating evidence-based nutrition education and promotion to prevent chronic diseases, improve health, and prioritize nutrition security. NIFA partners with the Land-grant University System and government, private, and non-profit organizations to support science. NIFA also invests in developing nutrition scientists across all stages of professional development to use an integrated approach to prioritizing nutrition security and ensuring sustainable agricultural systems through research, education, extension, and innovation. NIFA invests more than $220 million in research, education, extension, and innovation to advance USDA’s goal to tackle food and nutrition security. Relevant collaborations within the USDA include Agricultural Marketing Service and Food and Nutrition Service, in addition to the Rural Health Liaison, based in the Rural Development Mission Area. NIFA also collaborates with the US Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

On December 4, 2023, NIFA hosted a listening session to collect feedback, through oral and written comments, regarding all aspects of NIFA’s Community Nutrition Competitive Grant Programs, which include:

• Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP),
• Food and Agriculture Service Learning Program (FASLP), and
• Community Foods Projects Competitive Grant Program (CFPCGP). 

While not a focal point of the recent listening session, other relevant NIFA Community Nutrition investments include:

• Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP)
• Agricultural and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) A1344 Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases
• 4-H Youth Development Program
• 1890 Institution Teaching, Research and Extension Capacity Building Grants (CBG) Program
• Alaska Native-Serving and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions (ANNH) Competitive Education Grants Program
• Hispanic-Serving Institutions Education Grants Program (HSI)
• Tribal Extension Grant Program
• Federally-Recognized Tribes Extension Program
• A1712 Rapid Response to Extreme Weather Events
• A1741 Center for Research, Behavioral Economics, and Extension on Food Loss & Waste
• A9201 Sustainable Agricultural Systems
• Children, Youth and Families at Risk (CYFAR)
• CYFAR 4-H Military Partnership Professional Development & Technical Assistance (CMPC-PDTA)
• Master Gardener Program, as well as Master Health and Master Food Preserver Programs
• Regional Rural Development Centers
• Rural Health & Safety Education
• Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Program
• Urban, Indoor, and Emerging Agriculture
• WIC Workforce Development Initiative

Other Relevant Topic Pages

• Climate
• Community Nutrition
• Food Loss and Waste
• Food Science
  • Food Quality
  • Food Safety
• Nutrition and Food Systems
• Sustainable Agriculture
• Global Food Security
• Local and Regional Food Systems
• Nutrition Education
• Prevention of Diet-Related Diseases and Disparities 

Consumer Resources

USA.gov Government Benefits explains how to apply for and find social support programs, including nutrition assistance. Nutrition.gov is a USDA sponsored website that offers credible information to help you make healthful eating choices. 

Nutrition Professional Resources

The USDA National Agricultural Library’s Food and Nutrition Information Center provides access to a range of resources from both government and non-government sources.