Religion & Food Systems

How religious institutions, beliefs, and cultural practices shape organizational policies, volunteer behavior, and food security outcomes in charitable food provision.

Race, Equity & Social Welfare

Examining how whiteness, racism, and cultural norms manifest in social welfare institutions and affect dignity, agency, and health outcomes for recipients.

Food Insecurity & Health

Understanding food insecurity as a social determinant of health and evaluating community-based interventions that improve food security and nutrition.

Team-Based Research

Developing innovative pedagogical approaches that train undergraduate researchers, build research teams, and advance rigorous qualitative scholarship.

Food insecurity impacted 44 million people in the United States in 2022, with nearly double the rates in Black and Hispanic populations. Low and very low food security are linked to increased risk of diet-related chronic diseases (hypertension, coronary heart disease, cancer, and diabetes), inadequate nutrient intake, and negative social-psychological effects including shame, stigma, and social isolation.

While much community-based research focuses on individual and household factors—such as cooking education and home gardening—less attention has been paid to the interaction between communities and the systems designed to serve them. Many charitable food organizations operate with minimal input from the communities they serve, missing opportunities to understand what recipients actually need.

My dissertation was a 34-month ethnographic study of five religiously-affiliated food pantries in Brazos County, Texas. I worked alongside volunteer researchers to conduct participant observation, interviews, and qualitative analysis. This research revealed how religious mission, volunteer culture, and organizational ideology can either support or undermine nutrition and dignity outcomes for recipients.

Key findings:

• → Religious obligations and mission priorities can deemphasize nutrition policy implementation
• → Religious and cultural norms embedded in volunteer practices can reinforce implicit bias and disempower recipients
• → Organizational emphasis on religious identity rather than social welfare mission can perpetuate harm
• → Understanding organizational culture is essential to improving food security outcomes

This work was published in Journal of Food, Culture & Society and Sociology of Religion, and documented a novel methodology for ethnographic research using team-based undergraduate researchers.

I am currently investigating “pay-what-you-can” restaurants, or community cafés, as an innovative model for addressing food insecurity and social isolation. Unlike traditional charitable food provision, cafés serve nutritious, prepared meals in a restaurant setting where anyone can dine regardless of ability to pay. This model eliminates stigma and maintains recipient dignity.

My contributions include:

• → Semi-structured interviews with café directors and managers about food security impact
• → Ethnographic observation of two community cafés in Fort Worth and Arlington, Texas
• → Exploratory mixed-methods study of café volunteerism and resource mobilization
• → National survey development to study volunteers and staff across community cafés

Published in Appetite (2024) with presentations at Society for Behavioral Medicine, American Public Health Association, and invited presentation at the One World Everybody Eats National Summit. This research demonstrates how innovative community-based models can subvert traditional barriers associated with charitable food provision.

I have pioneered an innovative approach to qualitative research that departs from the traditional model of solo ethnographers. By recruiting and training undergraduate researchers to form collaborative data collection and analysis teams, I leverage diverse perspectives and lived experiences while providing high-impact research experiences for students.

My approach includes:

• → Rigorous recruitment and training protocols for undergraduate researchers
• → Persistent team structures across multiple semesters (1-3 teams per semester, 4-5 students per team)
• → Student participation in participant observation, interviews, and qualitative analysis
• → Emphasis on reflexivity—helping students understand how their identities and experiences inform their research
• → Publication and presentation of student-co-authored research

This methodology has trained over 54 undergraduate researchers, resulted in peer-reviewed publications, and secured $20,000 in external funding through the Louisville Institute. As Director of the Aggie Research Program at Texas A&M (2017–2023), I oversaw the creation of over 1,000 research teams with 41% of participants from underrepresented groups—demonstrating the scalability of team-based research models.

My long-term research agenda is to advance community-based participatory action research that elevates the perspectives and voices of people experiencing food insecurity.

Planned research directions:

• → Community-based participatory research with Dallas food pantries and communities to co-develop implementation plans for the client choice model
• → Systematic literature review and qualitative synthesis of participatory action research on food and nutrition security
• → Evaluation of how choice-based food pantries improve food security, diet quality, and dignity
• → Policy recommendations rooted in community partnerships and health outcome data