For our September ‘25 interview we sat down with Dr. Urshila Sriram from the Simmons University Department of Nutrition for an insightful conversation on the vital link between community nutrition and public health. Dr. Sriram breaks down the complex realities of food insecurity and explores the path toward food security for everyone.

Tell us a little bit about your educational journey and how your public health studies lead to you pursuing your PhD in community nutrition. 

My undergrad degree was in biochemistry. I always really enjoyed the sciences and problem-solving. I remember taking a nutrient metabolism class and becoming more interested in metabolism and nutrition. For grad school I applied to a handful of programs, a couple of which were in public health. I didn’t know much about public health but it sounded interesting because I enjoyed working with people and wanted to learn more about social issues. The Master of Science in Public Health program at Hopkins, which had a nutrition focus, just seemed to be the best fit.

In the MPH program, we learned all the basic public health concepts, like epidemiology and biostatistics. Applying stats to public health issues made a whole difference for me. I got really excited learning about food security, the environmental impacts of how we grow and distribute food, and how different factors in our social environment influence infectious and chronic diseases. 

During my MPH I had a chance to do a practicum with a professor at the University of Toronto focused on food insecurity in Toronto, where I grew up. We looked at household-level determinants of food insecurity, trying to map rates of food insecurity across different cities in Canada to see how much was related to housing costs versus other costs. I had the chance to work with folks that did policy around food insecurity and go to conferences with practitioners and clinicians. It was a really nice way to integrate research with practice, and I realized I wanted to keep going. That’s what drew me to my PhD program in community nutrition, which in my mind, still has so many elements of public health and why I’m still interested in public health more broadly.

Public health is very interdisciplinary in nature, and you mentioned having the opportunity to interact with clinicians, policymakers, and other researchers during your MPH practicum. Could you speak to some of your experiences working with professionals with different backgrounds to put your heads together to understand and address these issues?

My master's practicum was my first introduction to that type of work. I came into it feeling very new, but it was fascinating to meet other researchers in the food insecurity space. They were part of an interdisciplinary research group called PROOF, which focused on policy options related to food insecurity. It was interesting to hear how the researchers and policymakers part of the group thought about their research. I started to see the connections and how people applied the work beyond publishing papers in hopes that practitioners will see and use them.

In my PhD at Cornell, we worked a lot with Cornell Cooperative Extension, which is an educational outreach arm of the university under Cornell’s land-grant mission. Our research projects were always in partnership with Cooperative Extension Educators. So, that was a great way for me to learn what it meant to work with communities to design and develop research; community-engaged research was something I was really interested in. The Educators facilitated our interventions which had both individual educational and environmental change components. And later, during my dietetic internship, some of those educators were my preceptors. I got to do the work they do—running workshops, farmer's market demos, and cooking classes. Getting to see all sides, both research and practice, was great and integrated with my  research interests.

You mentioned growing up in Toronto. How does your background and personal knowledge of Canadian society inform your teaching and research now, especially regarding different approaches to social support systems for issues like food insecurity? 

That’s something I think about a lot. My first introduction to food insecurity research was in a Canadian context, and then I came back to the U.S. for my PhD. When we look at the healthcare system, there are clear differences. Canada has a government-funded healthcare system that opens up access in many ways. What surprised me when learning about the U.S. system is that Canada doesn't have federal programs like SNAP or WIC. 

There really is no federal network of nutrition programs in Canada. It's up to provinces and cities to create programs and resources. Even programs like school lunch and breakfast, we didn't have that going through public school in Canada. This means the landscape of food resources falls onto community organizations like food banks and pantries. There’s a strong charitable food network, which has pros and cons. I think that's why there's even more of a push towards larger policy changes, like a livable income, so that everyone has their own ability to purchase the food they need. But it was always an interesting difference to me, where I could see having a national nutrition support system would be really beneficial in a Canadian context.

Food insecurity is a major interest for many public health students in the Simmons MPH, who often approach it as a moral issue—that everyone has a right to food–in order to advocate for change. But the program also pushes students to think about the root causes and health impacts of to more specifically call out the need for systemic or structural change. Could you talk about what food insecurity is and what health or other consequences people experience?

Absolutely. The way I think about food security is having adequate access to not just a sufficient quantity of food, but a sufficient quality of food that meets people's physiological, cultural, and social needs, without having to worry about the certainty of that access. How we measure it in both the U.S. and Canada is often tied to financial resources.

But it goes beyond financial constraints. There are psychological dimensions. Someone might have the resources to get enough food on the surface, but we aren't necessarily capturing the psychological stress that goes along with how they acquire it.

There are a lot of consequences. Part of it relates to the likelihood of developing diet-related chronic diseases like diabetes or cardiovascular disease if folks aren't getting sufficient quality and variety of nutrients. The role that stress plays also impacts health. In more severe cases, if you're going prolonged periods without food, the risk of malnutrition becomes much higher. We also see that within households adults often sacrifice for themselves so that kids or older relatives have enough. So even within one household, the experiences of food insecurity can be very different.

The basic goal is making sure everyone has enough to eat. Then the next goal is making sure they have enough variety and quality and foods that are culturally relevant to them.

You mentioned you teach about the topic of food insecurity in your classes. How do you teach it, and what surprises you about your students and their interests?

I've found ways to talk about food systems more broadly and food security in the different courses I teach. For example, in our first-year "Writing Boston" course, the themes are around food, culture, and identity. The course begins by thinking about community-based issues around food and health, so we have a unit on food security and what that looks like in Boston. Students get to write an op-ed about a social issue that ties back to food in a way that matters to them. A lot of students get really interested. Some have had personal experiences, while for others it sparks something in them, and they are motivated to look at what it looks like in their hometown. Seeing students become passionate about these issues is always exciting.

I also teach our intro community nutrition class  where the overlap between community nutrition and public health is so evident. We talk a lot about federal nutrition programs like SNAP, WIC, and the Elder Nutrition Program—how they operate and how they're influenced by policy and political changes with regard to the services these programs are able to provide. 

Finally, I work with master's students on thesis projects. I'll usually propose a project related to campus food insecurity, which is an area that very much affects our students. This year, one of our students is looking at screening for food insecurity within clinical settings and how patients get referred to resources, which ties into the broader screening for social determinants of health that many health centers are doing.

While the questions have focused on food insecurity, you’ve discussed food security, which is an important reframe. Rather than only state the problem, we should also envision what it looks like when it's fixed. Could you talk about your current research and interests around food security?

My background is in program evaluation. In my Ph.D. work, I helped implement community-based interventions, focusing on process and outcome evaluation. I wanted to understand not just if these programs had the impacts we hoped for, but how they worked in practice. How did facilitation go? How did educators and participants feel? I became passionate about working with community organizations to help evaluate the programs they are already running. These organizations are doing such good work, and there isn’t always a need to invent new programs. My research skills in evaluation can support them, as they often have limited capacity. Having data on how their programs are running helps them apply for funding, continue their operations, and increase their reach. That’s the space I’ve always enjoyed working in.

Campus food security is something that resonates with so many of us who have been students. The high cost of education, particularly in the U.S., sets many people up to not have adequate access to resources like food. A lot of my research interests are centered around improving access to nutrition and food resources, all falling under that food security umbrella.

When I was a grad student in upstate New York, a group of undergraduate students wanted to start an affordable and accessible campus-based grocery store. For students who lived near campus without a car, it was hard to get food beyond the dining halls, and that's if they could even afford a meal plan. I was recruited to serve on the advisory board for the store, Annabelle’s Grocery, which is still running today. They partner with local farmers and grocery stores to purchase a variety of foods, run cooking classes, and maintain a great social media presence. Students can use their ID to scan in, and the pricing is adjusted based on need without requiring them to show anything else, making it a less stigmatizing approach. 

What are some of the biggest barriers to food security that you've encountered in your work that you would eliminate if you could…if you could create a utopia where food insecurity isn’t an issue?

The more I've learned, the more I come back to a basic livable income. I think that ends up being the root of affordability and access, not just to food, but to all resources that everyone should have access to.

In an ideal world, we would also have unlimited funding for community organizations to keep doing the essential work they do. Ideally, there wouldn’t be a need to distribute food resources specifically, because everyone would be able to acquire them in different ways. But there is certainly a need for the educational initiatives, community gardens, and other programs that these organizations provide, which increase food access while also offering social and community benefits. A lot of the struggles organizations face come back to limited funding and having to decide where to focus their efforts. In an ideal world, that wouldn't be an issue.

This would all lead to people having the ability to decide how they want to acquire their food. Whether that means going to a grocery store with a full selection, using an affordable meal kit service, or gardening. I have a friend who runs an organization called Eat Well Meal Kits in the Boston area, providing affordable and nutritionally balanced meal kits to a wider segment of the population. Organizations are doing incredible work that additional funding could support. 

So, I think a basic livable income and adequate funding for community organizations are the two key things. Together, they would hopefully give everybody the variety of access to food that they would want and need.

Thanks to Dr. Sriram for joining us to share your expertise and insights!