Date of Award

Fall 2026

Abstract

Sub-Saharan African (SSA) immigrants are a growing population in the U.S. and experience a high prevalence of food insecurity. As many report challenges accessing healthy and culturally appropriate foods after migration, cultural food security is a growing concern. Alternative food networks (AFNs), such as farmers markets and community gardens, provide opportunities for immigrant communities to produce and access culturally important foods to support their cultural food security. Beyond improving food access, AFNs may also enhance the agency and sustainability dimensions of food security by creating opportunities for immigrants to produce, distribute, and access culturally appropriate foods through local food systems, strengthening their long-term availability. Despite growing scholarly attention to immigrants' food insecurity experiences, research remains limited on how SSA immigrant communities perceive cultural food security and navigate new agrifood environments, including alternative food networks, to sustain culturally relevant foodways.This three-paper dissertation takes a holistic approach to cultural food security, examining the cultural and social meanings of food alongside material access, using a food systems lens to bridge concerns of food production and consumption. Specifically, following a scoping review framework, the first dissertation article synthesizes existing evidence on access to culturally appropriate food within local food systems and its associated health impacts among immigrants from low- and middle-income countries residing in high-income countries, while identifying key gaps in the literature. The second article uses the photovoice approach to investigate how Congolese immigrant adults perceive and negotiate cultural food security in the context of post-immigration dietary changes, and the third article adopts a case study approach to examine immigrant-led incubator farms as a market-based AFN to explore its potential to support cultural food security. Taken together, these articles advance our understanding of cultural food security by elucidating how immigrant communities perceive cultural food security and navigate both conventional and alternative food environments to sustain culturally meaningful foodways. Importantly, the findings suggest that cultural food security is best understood as a relational process through which immigrants exercise agency to navigate school, neighborhood, and retail food environments; participate in local food production; and develop collective strategies to navigate constraints related to food assistance programs and nonprofit services. By highlighting the agency and sustainability dimensions of food security, these findings generate actionable recommendations for research, practice and policy to strengthen food security and promote health equity.

Document Type

Dissertation

First Advisor

Analena Bruce

Second Advisor

Semra Aytur

Third Advisor

Sherman Bigornia

Department or Program

Nutritional Sciences

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

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