Fed Family Lab

2025-2026

Project Overview

Infants in the first 1000 days are vulnerable to food insecurity. This is the case whether infants are breastfed or formula fed. In Nova Scotia, including rural Nova Scotia, the problem is more prevalent than ever in the wake of recent shocks, including the COVID-19 pandemic, cost of living pressures, infant formula shortages, and climate-induced emergencies that are disrupting first-food systems (those that provision foods for our youngest people – including through breastfeeding, foods obtained through commercial markets, or country foods).

Through an e-Delphi study which will involve a cross-sectoral sample of knowledge holders about various aspects of infant food insecurity in Nova Scotia, this project will determine a First-Food System Framework and potential policy solutions. Two rounds of surveys and a deliberative dialogue with participants will establish those upstream structural drivers of infant food insecurity, outcomes, and interventions that have been demonstrated to work in other high-income contexts.

Specific Objectives:

1) To understand the structural drivers, outcomes, and interventions related to infant food insecurities in high-income contexts with a focus on rural inclusion and oversights

2) To prioritize potential policy solutions that align with current evidence

3) To develop a First-Food System Framework with transferability to rural and non-rural jurisdictions.