A Research Data Analyst 3 position is available at the Nutrition Policy Institute, University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources, located in Oakland, CA. This position will support evaluation studies conducted by NPI through its CalFresh Healthy Living contract with the California Department of Public Health. In California, SNAP-Ed is called CalFresh Healthy Living (CFHL) and is the largest nutrition education and obesity prevention program in the United States, with more than one-third of California residents eligible for CFHL. The Research Data Analyst 3 position requires the ability to independently perform data analysis, data management, data visualization, and reporting of organizational, policy and environmental data and individual-level data for studies of nutrition, physical activity and obesity. This position is a contract appointment that is 100% fixed through September 30, 2023. The pay scale is $6,908.33 to $9,800.00 per month. More information and instructions on how to apply are available online. The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status or other protected categories covered by the UC nondiscrimination policy.

A new research brief developed by the Nutrition Policy Institute describes a study that identified limited implementation of California's Healthy Default Beverage Law (SB 1192) for orders made online. The law requires restaurants selling children's meals that include a beverage to make the default beverage water, sparkling water, flavored water with no added natural or artificial sweeteners, or unflavored milk or non-dairy milk alternative. Researchers randomly sampled 226 fast food restaurants located in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education (SNAP-Ed) eligible census tracts in California and “ordered” 631 kids' meals from restaurant websites and three popular online ordering platforms. Researchers recorded beverage offerings as well as additional charges (“upcharges”) for beverages. Findings indicate that only 6% of orders reflected optimal implementation of the Healthy-by-Default Beverage law. Further, 41% of orders that offered water had an upcharge ($0.51 on average) and 11% of orders that offered unflavored milk had an up charge ($0.38 on average). No observations had upcharges for soda. The findings indicate that, in order to support California's SNAP-Ed goal for reducing sugar sweetened beverage intake, specific language, monitoring, and future legislation may be necessary to ensure the law is applied to online-ordering and in-restaurant self-service kiosks. The study and research brief were authored by NPI's Cal Fresh Healthy Living Evaluation Unit, including Hannah Thompson, Ron Strochlic, Sonali Singh, Kaela Plank, Anna Martin, and Gail Woodward-Lopez.

Nutrition Policy Institute and affiliated researchers were featured in a Morning Ag Clips article on Oct. 20, 222, “Nutrition Policy Institute work underpins historic White House conference”. The article introduced the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health, which took place on Sept. 28, the first time since it was originally hosted 50 years ago. During the conference, the Biden administration announced a national strategy “to end hunger in America and increase healthy eating and physical activity by 2030 so fewer Americans experience diet-related diseases.” NPI director and Cooperative Extension specialist Lorrene Ritchie was quoted in the article: “Science is the work of many – and no one study answers all the questions – but we have a tremendous body of work that has contributed to this conference.” The article also highlighted NPI's recommendations to conference organizers on encouraging drinking water over sugar sweetened beverages, quoting NPI's senior policy advisor Christina Hecht, “NPI's recommendations were built on lots of work by many water researchers and advocates over the years.” The article also quoted NPI affiliated research Suzanna Martinez at the University of California, San Francisco about her collaborative work with NPI on alleviating food insecurity for college students. “The work that we're doing here in California tends to set the stage for what happens in other states.”

Miranda Westfall joined the Nutrition Policy Institute on October 3, 2022 as the Director of the CalFresh Healthy Living Evaluation Unit. She will be mentored by Gail Woodward-Lopez, Principal Investigator of the unit. As a registered dietitian and a public health nutrition researcher, Miranda brings a wealth of experience from her academic career at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, where her training and research focused on public health program planning and evaluation to support nutrition and health outcomes across the life course. She also led evaluation of training and workforce support activities for California's COVID-19 response. At the Nutrition Policy Institute, Miranda will continue to support healthy eating and active living through monitoring and assessing the impact of the CalFresh Healthy Living program in partnership with the California Department of Public Health and local health departments. CalFresh Healthy Living is the largest nutrition education and obesity prevention program in California with more than one-third of California residents eligible for the program.