Project: Delta Body and Soul (Project #2)

Lead Agency: USDA/ARS

This project’s goal is to adapt, implement, and evaluate a culturally-appropriate church-based intervention designed at improving dietary and physical activity habits among African Americans residing in Delta Region. This program will be adapted from an effective and thoroughly evaluated church-based diet intervention from the National Cancer Institute called “Body and Soul” used to meaningfully increase fruit and vegetable consumption among participants. The original Body and Soul program featured a combination of educational, social support, and peer-counseling components with specific focus on increasing fruit and vegetable consumption and was administered largely by trained lay church members. Using a similar structure, the Delta Body and Soul program aims to address dietary deficiencies relevant to Delta residents, concentrating on increasing intake of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and decreasing intake of fat, sodium and added sugar. The Delta Body and Soul program will engage 20 churches in the Mississippi Delta region between the years 2009 and 2012. The participating churches will be assigned as an intervention or control church. All participants will have demographic, health, clinical, psychosocial, dietary and physical activity behaviors assessed at baseline and six month follow-up. Intervention churches will partake in a six month nutrition education and fitness program, engage in improving the nutrition environment at their church, participate in peer counseling sessions, and engage in a physical activity program. The final product of the project will be a structured and evaluated church-based intervention designed specifically to address dietary and physical activity deficiencies prevalent among Delta African Americans that can be administered on a large-scale by lay church members.