Leveraging Community-Based Food Pantry Settings for Provision of Tobacco Cessation Treatment is a projected 5-year long project that aims to raise awareness and effectiveness of the tobacco quitline, especially for socioeconomically disadvantaged populations. This will be accomplished by using local Cuyahoga food pantries as a community space to reach individuals who currently use tobacco and refer them to the Ohio Tobacco Quitline, an accessible and evidence based smoking cessation resource.
Project Goals
This project aims to adapt Ask-Advise-Connect (AAC), a model typically used in clinical settings, to a model that can be used in community settings. The purpose of AAC is to increase the reach of quitline services by systematically addressing barriers that the target community may face. Specifically, we are aiming to expand quitline services and outreach from a healthcare setting to food pantries to increase intake of tobacco quitlines for individuals that already face socioeconomic barriers.
Why is this important to our community?
Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable disease. One of the goals of the FETCH project is to examine the feasibility of conducting smoking cessation outreach to smokers in the context of food assistance programs. Through partnering with the Hunger Network of Greater Cleveland, the FETCH project aligns with the PRCHN mission in its effort to prevent and reduce the burden of tobacco-related chronic disease in the Greater Cleveland community.
Team Members & Collaborators
PRCHN Team
Principal Investigators
- Jin Kim-Mozeleski, PhD
- Erika Trapl, PhD
- Sarah Koopman Gonzalez, PhD
Co-Investigators
- Elaine Borawski, PhD
- Owusua Yamoah, PhD
- Holly Hartman, PhD
Project Manager
- Madeline Castele, MPH
Student Research Assistants
- Avianna Thompson, PhD Candidate, CWRU
- Jessica Yoon, MD Candidate, CWRU
- Noah Ahmed, BS Candidate, John Carroll University
- Valencia Fernando, MPH Candidate, George Washington University
Collaborators & Partners
- Kristen Mikelbank, Greater Cleveland Food Bank
- Alissa Glen, Greater Cleveland Food Bank
- Amy Gorenflo, Ohio Department of Health
- Frances Mills, Cleveland Department of Public Health
- Sue Flocke, Consultant, Oregon Health and Sciences University
Advisory Board
- Study Team Design-Recruitment is being finalized as of 3/3/2025.
Areas/Communities of Focus
We will be focusing on food pantries that are served by the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. Our intervention will serve food pantry patrons who currently use a tobacco product and are interested in quitting smoking.
Project Activities
- Focus groups
- Town Hall
- Randomized Control Trial
- Surveys
- Interviews
Specific Aims
- Aim 1: Hold focus groups and town hall meetings with both individuals who utilize food pantries (food pantry patrons) and individuals who work at food pantries. These meetings will help us understand how to best collect data and design the intervention specifically for a food pantry setting.
- Aim 2: A randomized controlled trial that will implement both the Aim 1-designed intervention and a control intervention in food pantries.
- Aim 3: Examine the effectiveness and reach of the intervention designed in Aim 1 via surveys and interviews of pantry workers and food pantry patrons.
Methods
- Aim 1: We will be holding two rounds of focus groups for food pantry workers and two rounds for food pantry patrons for a total of four focus groups. These sessions will help collect information on how tobacco quitline referrals can be integrated into a food pantry setting. A town hall will then be conducted with all participants discussing the designed intervention.
- Aim 2: At 18 different food pantries of the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, there will be randomization of either the intervention designed in Aim 1 or a control, which consists of quitline information given in the form of a wallet card. Reach and effectiveness will be measured to determine if the designed intervention holds greater impact for tobacco cessation in food pantries.
- Aim 3: Surveys and interviews of food pantry workers and patrons will be conducted and analyzed using thematic coding to understand why the designed intervention had the effects that it did and to understand possible adaptations to be made for other food pantries and community spaces.
Timeline & Grant Period
2024-2029
History
The PRCHN carried out a preliminary pilot study prior to this work, which assessed the feasibility of carrying out this current project. The pilot study consisted of surveys and focus groups of individuals who had visited food pantries. Furthermore, tobacco quitline referral outreach events were conducted at food pantries. This preliminary study found that while it is possible to use food pantries as a space to connect tobacco users to the tobacco quitline, there is a need for intervention designed for the food pantry community setting to increase reach and effectiveness.
Dissemination
Check back for updates!
What do we hope this work leads to?
As this is the first study of its kind, by adapting AAC for use in a community-based setting, this project can inform and improve future intervention development to increase access to smoking cessation services to underserved groups who seek to quit smoking. Specifically, the vision is that community settings like food pantries can continue to use the intervention model to continue offering smoking cessation opportunities beyond the scope of this project.
This work is funded by the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute.