Process and Outcome Results in Understanding Food Insecurity and Food Shopping Practices of Liberian women and their families in the U.S

Food insecurity, the inability to access sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to maintain a healthy life, is a serious public health concern since it is related to poor physical and mental health outcomes. The study was carried out with Liberian mothers in Guilford County in order to understand: 1) prevalence and socio-demographic predictors of food insecurity; 2) common food shopping and budgeting practices. To assess food insecurity, an 18-item USDA Food Security scale was used while open ended questions with prompts were used to collect food shopping and related information. Middle-aged, Liberian women living in the research area were hired and trained to recruit participants and to assist in conducting the interviews. According to the pilot phase (n = 7 interviews) results, most of them were unemployed and relied mainly on SNAP benefits to maintain food supply. Occurrence of child hunger was found common among study participants. All the participants reported shopping in small ethnic stores to buy traditional food items such as frozen potato leaves, cassava flour and fish. The following optimal interviewer characteristics were identified, based on the process results: 1) familiarity with study area; 2) respected and known in the community; 3) ability to build trust with the participants; and 4) some prior formal work experience. It is important to build a pilot phase to train interviewers and develop a culturally appropriate questionnaire. Further research will help to better understand the prevalence and impact of child hunger on growth and well being of Liberian children upon resettlement.