Research, Relationships, and the Future of Food Access on Grant Street
On April 29th, members of Grant Street Community had the opportunity to meet with Lawrence David’s research team connected to Duke University, including researchers working on emerging data related to food access, neighborhood health, and community food environments. The conversation centered around the ongoing advocacy efforts connected to the proposed grocery store at the Villages of Hayti development and the current estimated $6 million funding gap preventing the grocery component from moving forward.
The Duke research team shared that they are actively developing tools and neighborhood-level data that can help communities better understand food access patterns, including the relationship between grocery stores, convenience stores, food deserts, and health outcomes. Importantly, they expressed excitement about partnering with community-led efforts like Grant Street Community and stated that they would be willing to support advocacy efforts by helping analyze and present data in ways that strengthen future grant applications, public advocacy, and conversations with city leaders.
Researchers also shared that their team is beginning to identify “food signatures” connected to neighborhoods with strong grocery access versus neighborhoods experiencing food scarcity. They believe this data could help demonstrate the measurable impact a grocery store would have in Hayti and surrounding communities. The team emphasized that while they cannot advocate politically on behalf of a project as representatives of Duke University itself, they are eager to collaborate by providing credible, research-based data and visualizations that community organizers and advocates can utilize.
In addition, the Duke team offered to connect Grant Street Community to additional leaders involved in Durham’s food access work, including individuals connected to local and regional funding opportunities related to grocery access, community gardens, and public health. Together we also acknowledged the deep historic relationship between Duke and longtime Hayti residents, noting how many elders in the neighborhood spent decades working at Duke while continuing to invest in and sustain the community around Grant Street.
Following that meeting, we also met with Ketty Thelemaque and leadership from Durham CAN to begin discussing how community organizing and academic research might work together in support of the neighborhood. One of the major hopes coming out of both conversations is the possibility of bringing together the Duke research team and the Durham CAN research and organizing teams in order to share information, strengthen advocacy efforts, and help build a compelling case for filling the $6 million funding gap needed to secure the grocery store component for the Villages of Hayti development.
As many neighbors know, access to healthy and affordable food has been a long-standing need in this community. We believe this collaboration between residents, organizers, researchers, and local institutions has the potential to strengthen the case that the grocery store is not simply a development amenity, but a critical investment in the long-term health, dignity, and flourishing of the Hayti community.
We will continue to keep neighbors updated as these conversations develop.
— The Grant Street Community
