ABERDEEN, S.D.(Hub City Radio)- The Future of Food Conservation seminar was held at Avera on Wednesday.  They addressed the food and nutrition in communities following the release of South Dakota’s first-ever Food Landscape Assessment.  The South Dakota Healthy Nutrition Collaborative are doing this across the state of South Dakota.  Aberdeen was the fourth of fifth stop scheduled by this group.

They broke it down into five categories all starting with the letter A.

Affordability:

Kassandra McFarland with the Avera Research Institute described it as the most important issue among those that were surveyed.

Assistance:

SDHNC Coordinator Jennifer Folliard went over who uses the SNAP program in South Dakota.

Folliard also address child food security in South Dakota.

Access:

Dr. Christine Hockett with Avera Research Institute goes over factors dealing with access.

Hockett talked about how many counties are considered rural counties in the state.

She stated that one person in the survey traveled over 100 miles just to do grocery shopping in the state.

Hockett also talked about the FRANK program that can accessed on the South Dakota Department of Health’s website.

Availability:

SDSU student Olivia Husmann described that some South Dakota farmers are doing what they call specialty crops.

Husmann talked about people in the state needing to find ways to support farmers in the state.

Acceptability:

Dr. Darla Biel with the Center for the Prevention of Child Maltreatment, talked about food cultures.

Biel also announced that majority of those surveyed felt that their food need for culture is not being met.

You can learn more about what they do at www.sdhealthynutritioncollaborative.com.