Most Americans do not eat enough seafood to receive health benefits, with greatest deficits among low-income and food-insecure communities. Yet few assessments of seafood preferences and barriers for low-income/Food Insecure (FI) consumers exist. There is thus a critical need to identify community-relevant opportunities to 1) improve public health through expanded education and access to seafood; and 2) determine the role of local marine aquaculture industries in supporting these efforts.
The South Central LA S ustainable Seafood Hub was developed to fill this gap. A pilot of the Hub was established in 2020 to create space for trusted community-based intermediaries to deliver sustainable seafood directly to residents of South Central Los Angeles, a neighborhood impacted by systemic barriers that perpetuate high rates of food insecurity, poverty, and disease risk. The Hub was launched via partnerships between Southern California-based aquaculture producers Holdfast Aquaculture (HA) and Santa Barbara Mariculture (SB M), researchers and educators from University of Southern California (USC) Sea Grant, and Community Services Unlimited (CSU), a 501c3 established in 1977 in South Central Los Angeles (SCLA) with a strong emphasis on promoting food sovereignty in the area. The Hub’s pilot efforts focused on 1) understanding existing demand, preferences, and barriers to seafood consumption among SCLA community members; and 2) providing experiential learning opportunities about California aquaculture products through provision of mussels produced by HA and SBM as well as a live-streamed cooking demonstration and Q&A with the producers and CSU.
We will share the outcomes of our exploratory community seafood survey as well as feedback gathered from focus groups of community membe rs who were provided with locally farmed mussels to prepare at home. Lessons learned from successes and challenges of the pilot program will also be discussed. We are seeking to expand this Hub model of a more equitable sustainable seafood network with other community-based organizations, sustainable seafood producers, and other parts of the seafood supply chain to subsidize costs for low-income consumers and build community trust in local sustainable seafood.