Dr. Jennifer Monk
University of Guelph
Dr. Jennifer Monk is an assistant professor and early career investigator at the University of Guelph in the Human Health and Nutritional Sciences (HHNS) department. Dr. Monk’s applied human research centres on identifying new ways to reduce food insecurity and enhance access to healthy foods in vulnerable urban populations, such as immigrant populations and the elderly. As part of her community engaged research within the City of Guelph, she has collaborated with The SEED Community Food Markets to demonstrate the sustainability and effectiveness of the novel sliding-scale payment option that increases access to healthy fruits and vegetables and reduce food insecurity. Additionally, Dr. Monk is interested in identifying the unique challenges experienced by vulnerable food insecure immigrant populations and the barriers they encounter to access culturally familiar foods while living in a new food environment. In this connection, she has worked with community partners to develop pictorial communication approaches to assist non-English speaking food insecure individuals to help identify culturally familiar food options, enhance their access to these foods and build food literacy.