Food access interventions in American Indian and Alaska Native communities: A scoping review

Urban Farm DB summary

This scoping review maps the existing literature on food access in American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities in the United States onto the Social Ecological Model (SEM). A systematic search of PubMed, CINAHL, SocIndex, Academic Search Premier, ERIC and Google Scholar covered publications from 1988 to 2023, followed by deductive content analysis through the SEM lens using qualitative software; 14 articles met the inclusion criteria. Interventions most frequently targeted the "intrapersonal" and "community" SEM levels, while the "institutional" and "public policy" levels were least targeted, with intervention formats including support for community and school gardens, seed provision, traditional foods at school, family and community events, and meal provision. The review found that valuable research has been conducted on AI/AN food access interventions, many spanning multiple SEM levels, and it points to the importance of leveraging strengths such as culturally aligned programs and traditional foods, calling for further collaboration between AI/AN communities and researchers to develop more informed, multi-level interventions.