Abstract
This pragmatic qualitative case study explored leadership strategies regarding urban agriculture related to food deserts in the research city. One-to-one interviews, a focus group, and a review of documents were the data sources for the study. The themes emerging from the investigation were a moral obligation, policy and protocol influence on individual practice, disproportionate access, health factors, cost factors, take it to them, building community with food gardens, and the need for farmers to grow food. This study utilized a political ecology framework that acknowledges the relationship between environmental, economic, political, and social factors. With rapid population growth expected in the research city, current food access insecurities suggest a call to action for local leaders, policymakers, and planners. Recommendations for future research include carrying out a complete community food security assessment to guide leaders in understanding their local food system and to more effectively create policies that increase food security, tracking circulation of seeds from the seed library along with success in growing, undertaking a study with SNAP-Ed and public health agencies to measure food output of community gardens placed in low-access multifamily residences, and survey community perceptions of urban agriculture and its influence on implementation, and examine the Goldschmidt Thesis, as it relates to current food insecurity in the research city (Goldschmidt, 1947).
Date Capstone Completed
5-2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Masters of Science in Educational Leadership
Department
Leadership Education - Graduate Studies
Advisor
Barbara Holmes, Ph.D.
Location
Winona, MN
Recommended Citation
Kirkpatrick, Kelly Rae, "Leading Change in Fresh Food Access: Increasing Food Security Through Urban Agriculture" (2019). Leadership Education Capstones. 83.
https://openriver.winona.edu/leadershipeducationcapstones/83
