Food Studies Commons^™

Cooking For A Cause: Food Insecurity In Lafayette County, Ms, Anna K. Richie

Honors Theses

Many people in Lafayette County, MS, experience ongoing difficulties with consistent access to healthy food options. According to the Mississippi Health & Hunger Atlas, “food insecurity rates in Mississippi are consistently and statistically higher than national averages—having been ranked as #1 or #2 for highest food insecurity rate every year for the past 15 years” (Haggard, Cafer & Green, 2017). This capstone project examines how a Little Free Pantry (LFP) initiative can contribute to local food security efforts and evaluates cooking demonstration outcomes using ingredients found in LFPs. The approach combines quantitative and qualitative methods by tracking pantry inventory data …

Challenges Us Study Abroad Students Face When Acculturating To A Foreign Food Environment, Sydney C. Davis

Honors Theses

Studying abroad presents a unique opportunity for college students to immerse themselves in new cultures, including experiencing different food environments and dietary customs. However, adapting to a foreign food culture can pose various challenges that impact students’ overall health, eating behaviors, and study abroad experiences. The purpose of this study to develop a survey instrument designed to investigate the extent to which U.S. study abroad students embrace, accept, and face challenges with different aspects of Italian food culture, using the Social Ecological Model (SEM) as a guiding framework. Initial survey items were developed with information obtained from focus group discussions …

Client-Centered Food Distribution: An Analysis Of Patron Preferences At The Oxford Food Pantry, Ella Mann

Honors Theses

Food insecurity has long penetrated the rural South. This limits access to nutritious foods like fresh produce and contributes to chronic health conditions that may arise. Food pantries serve as a vital resource in addressing these disparities by providing free food to families in need. Many of these pantries incorporate strategies to increase consumption of nutrient dense options such as fruits as vegetables. These strategies can vary but the client choice model has proven to align with the self determination theory and promote greater autonomy in food selection. This study aimed to assess the food preferences of patrons at the …

Making An Online Kitchen, Two Southern Women, Foodways, And Social Media, Olivia B. Merrell

Honors Theses

This thesis attempts to understand the ways in which social media has shaped southern women, specifically the ways it has shaped southern women in the kitchen. While exploring this topic, I spoke with both a Black and white southern woman from the south, both of which have grown a social media following based off the southern food they share online. This thesis aims to explore how social media has played a role in reshaping the southern kitchen for women across the south.

Shelving Stigma: A Grocery Store Client Choice Pantry Model - A Solution To Food Insecurity In Young Adults Of Marginalized Communities While Eradicating The Stigmatization Of Food Pantry Services, Anna C. Buckley

Honors Theses

An increasing number of young adults, age 18 to 35, are becoming food insecure across America, but disproportionately in urban and people of color communities. However, food pantries have remained a social stigma causing food insecure persons to avoid using a food pantry for hunger relief. Research has shown that the grocery store model for food pantries is most beneficial for staff, while also minimizing the stigma and increasing accessibility for pantry clientele. The purpose of this program proposal is to highlight the feasibility of implementation of a client choice grocery store pantry model at the NY Common Pantry (NYCP) …

Southern Rambles: Seeking A Place, Finding A Self, John Hayes

Study the South

"So, we set out from Atlanta in August 1997 on the older US Highway 19, heading south. We were seeking a South and we didn’t have a consciousness of being southern, but in a very elemental way, our consciousness had been deeply shaped by forces we were unaware of."

Sweet Lies: Influence Of Food Marketing On Childrens’ Health And The Need For Reform, Mollie M. Warrington

Honors Theses

Markedly, there is heavy marketing of unhealthy food to children. This has become a significant public health concern because of escalating rates of child obesity, which have long-term consequences for physical health and severe mental health repercussions, such as body image concerns and low self-esteem. This thesis explores how food marketing strategies, historically rooted in television ads and evolving through digital platforms, are linked to children's dietary choices and broader public health implications. It analyzes various manipulative tactics, such as digital advertising, influencer endorsement, and gamification, showing how companies take advantage of the cognitive vulnerabilities of children to propagate unhealthy …

Interpersonal Activism: How Local Black Residents Shaped The University Of Mississippi And Oxford In The Mid-Twentieth Century, Anna F. Kaplan

Study the South

"It is difficult to measure the direct impact—and sometimes even the existence—of daily personal interactions on individuals’ thoughts about race and desegregation. Rather than attempting to parse between change stemming from interpersonal relationships versus change as a result of federal intervention, I examine interracial and intraracial interactions across the town/gown divide in Oxford as spheres of influence. Black challenges to White supremacy at UM brought systemic racism into question even though those systems of oppression remained in place."

Mercy Buckets: Country Music, Southern Fiction, And The Limits Of Rewriting The South, Andy Oler

Study the South

"During World War II, GIs began saying “mercy buckets” as an intentional, joking mispronunciation of the French “merci beaucoup.”1 In the 2011 song “Mercy Buckets,” the southern rock and alt-country band Drive-By Truckers rewrite the phrase’s origin by treating it as an idiom of the American South. As might be expected, however, DBT do not reinforce stereotypical notions of the ignorant southern redneck. Instead, songwriter and lead singer Patterson Hood takes the phrase seriously, explaining just what it would mean if bringing someone “buckets of mercy” were a recognized part of southern culture. . . . In this article, I …

A Qualitative Study Of Food Behaviors In University Of Mississippi Students As They Relate To Nutrition Security, Bethany Selby

Honors Theses

Recent literature has demonstrated high rates of food insecurity in college students, with most estimates ranging from 30 to 40 percent. Additionally, the college diet is notoriously lacking in nutrition, and a large majority of college students do not meet the recommendations made by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Nutrition security, defined as an individual having consistent access, availability, and affordability of foods that promote wellbeing and prevent disease, addresses both of these issues.

This study, conducted in Spring 2022, used focus groups to examine food behaviors in a sample of majority undergraduate students at the University of Mississippi (n …

An Architectural Riddle: Billy Tripp's Minefield, Frédéric Allamel

Study the South

"The Mindfield, the sculptural environment created by self-taught builder Billy Tripp, is an alternative to architecture, or at least a countermodel that brings a novel perspective to the discipline. Challenging present architectural principles, such as functionality, cost-effectiveness, building techniques, and materials, the Mindfield opens the way to new possibilities. An ever-evolving edifice not designed to be inhabitable, and whose raison d’être emerged late in the building process, the Mindfield positions itself at the antipodes of mainstream architecture, thus enriching the architectural discourse with its innovative experiments. In building the Mindfield, Tripp inaugurates a holistic art where architecture, sculpture, and literature …

Investigation Into The Comorbidities Of Disordered Eating And Social Anxiety Disorder In College Students, Alice Mccraney

Honors Theses

In recent years, psychiatrists have reported a trend that individuals with social anxiety disorders are more likely to also have disordered eating and vice versa. Research into this connection has suggested that risk factors, such as stress reactivity, negative self- esteem, perfectionism and fear of negative evaluation are potential links. This is important because understanding the correlation between the two disorders could help develop better treatments plans for people who suffer from these disorders. This study investigates the relationship between the two. A total of 257 college students between ages 18-22 completed a questionnaire using the Disordered Eating Attitude Scale …

The Importance Of A Multidisciplinary Approach To Public Health: Addressing Food Insecurity Through A Biological And Sociological Lens, Chloe Grant

Honors Theses

Plants can sense the change of 1 ^oC in their growth environment and thus global climate change has a great impact on plant growth and development. The phenomenon that warm non-stress temperatures promote stem and petiole elongation, as well as leaf hyponastic growth, is collectively known as thermomorphogenesis. While it is known that the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor PIF4 is highly inducible by temperature elevations and controls thermomorphogenesis in dicots (e.g., Arabidopsis thaliana), the molecular mechanism underlying thermomorphogenetic growth in monocots is not clear. In this study, I identify PIF4 orthologs in several economically important monocotyledonous species and …

Relationship Between Anxiety And Dietary Quality In College Students, Katie Darnell

Honors Theses

College students across many universities show high levels of anxiety in the transition from high school to college. These students must learn to adapt to a higher demand of focus and work that a college education requires, and some students find the pressure to be too much to handle. The purpose of this study was to determine whether college students with high anxiety displayed a poorer diet quality. The sample was college students (N=44) enrolled in undergraduate studies at the University of Mississippi. Students completed an anonymous 39-item questionnaire about their prevalence of anxiety and consumption rates of …

Marketing To Food Insecure College Students: An Investigation Into The University Of Mississippi’S Food Pantry, Dandridge Parks

Honors Theses

College students are documented to suffer food insecurity at a high rate, and student-run food pantries have aimed to alleviate some of this burden. However, these pantries operate inefficiently and struggle to adequately meet student needs. In particular, many students are unaware of the pantry or have barriers to use. Research has found that only 14% of food insecure college students use their campus food pantries. The objective of the following work is to improve future marketing for campus run food pantries, with a specific focus on the University of Mississippi’s pantry.

In the last year, the University of Mississippi’s …

Measuring Food Consumption Within A Foodrx Program, Katie Howell

Honors Theses

This pilot study set out to assess food consumption measures within the Charleston FoodRx program. Assessments made through this investigation aim to improve the Charleston program as well as provide suggestions for future programs. Charleston FoodRx provides enrolled households with fruits and vegetables in a supply intended to last for two weeks. These goals combine social and pharmaceutical science, by addressing barriers in food environment and insecurity, nutritional health, and preventative treatment. Though the idea behind FoodRx has existed prior to recent pilot programs, research behind FoodRx and its possible integration within the healthcare system lack published and replicable research …

The Food Of The Gods, Ihab Hassan

Journal X

No abstract provided.

Health Landscapes In The South: Rurality, Racism, And A Path Forward, Anne Cafer, Meagen Rosenthal, Brookshield Laurent, Jennifer Conner, Raeda Anderson

Study the South

This conversation about health disparities in the South, with questions composed by the authors, incorporates the medical expertise of Brookshield Laurent and Jennifer Conner from the New York Institute of Technology’s Delta Population Health Institute at Arkansas State University, with the social science expertise of Raeda Anderson from the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia, and Meagan Rosenthal and Anne Cafer from the University of Mississippi.

An Evaluation Of Community Based Food Intervention: Cooking Matters In Charleston, Ms, Lindsay Fournier

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of Cooking Matters classes in producing improvement in individuals’ cooking skills and confidence, as well as their eating behaviors, shopping skills, and perceptions of cooking in rural Charleston, MS. These classes have reported great success in more urban areas such as Atlanta, GA; Philadelphia, PA; and Washington, DC; however, different challenges may be faced in rural Mississippi. To study the effectiveness of the interventions in a new context, pre- and post-intervention self-report surveys were performed and evaluated using Wilcoxon statistical analysis as well as paired sample t tests, and bootstrap …

Through The Words Of Those Who Have Experienced It: Reading The Whitney Plantation Along Neoslave Narratives, Sarah Payne

Study the South

Recent representations of slavery, however well intentioned, have provoked discussions about who should represent black pain and oppression and what purpose such representations serve. Also evoking such questions are contemporary plantation tours, most of which are white-centered, “moonlight and magnolia” recreations. There have been efforts to represent slavery more accurately at plantations such as Oak Alley, and most notably, the Whitney Plantation, which opened in 2014 in Wallace, Louisiana.

This essay asks how our understanding of the Whitney Plantation, as a representation of slavery, a public history project, and an example of dark tourism, might be affected by reading the …

Sister Act: Margaret Walker And Eudora Welty, Carolyn J. Brown

Study the South

At the end of their lives, in the 1980s and ’90s, both Margaret Walker and Eudora Welty were recognized several times by their hometown and state for their long careers and bodies of work. The paths they traveled to reach this intersection of common recognition were quite different, however. Almost exact contemporaries -— Welty lived from 1909-2001 and Walker from 1915-1998 -— they share similar timelines and histories, both having lived through the Depression, World War II, and the civil rights movement. But as one was white and one was black, their stories are very different, as are their paths …