Category Archives: Updates

Voices at the Table: Through A Grad Student’s Perspective

Envision walking into a vibrant space filled with delightful aromas, laughter, and passionate conversations. At the center, a newly formed community of restaurant owners, public health stakeholders, researchers, and community advocates are gathered to connect and collaborate for a second time with the purpose of achieving one common goal – promoting and supporting healthy eatingContinue reading “Voices at the Table: Through A Grad Student’s Perspective”

Introducing Voices at the Table: Luncheons to promote community health through restaurants

It has been more than a year since I moved to New Orleans, relocating the LARiA Project from the City University of New York to its new institutional home, Tulane University. During this time, I have been fortunate to connect with collaborators and build a local team to help me move our work forward inContinue reading “Introducing Voices at the Table: Luncheons to promote community health through restaurants”

New Publication: Promoting Health Equity through Innovative Collaborations with Restaurants

We are proud to be sharing this new publication from our project director, Prof. Melissa Fuster, as part of a Frontiers in Public Health Special Collection, Experts’ opinions in public health and nutrition: emerging issues in the field.   This opinion piece presents ongoing culinary innovations, particularly within Latin American restaurants which signifies that community restaurantsContinue reading “New Publication: Promoting Health Equity through Innovative Collaborations with Restaurants”

Design Thinking Breakfast at Fritai

Last week, we had our first community engagement event in New Orleans: a design thinking breakfast! These events are hosted by Tulane University’s Taylor Center, as informal and playful community-building spaces for experimenting with design, design thinking, and related methods for social impact. We spent the morning at Fritai, a Haitian restaurant located in theContinue reading “Design Thinking Breakfast at Fritai”

New Publication: Results from our restaurant listening sessions

Originally posted on Melissa Fuster, PhD:
This post is to celebrate a new publication: Promoting healthy eating in Latin American restaurants. The article presents the findings from our initial listening sessions with Latin American restaurant stakeholders for my restaurant research project. Our efforts began almost two years ago, in the fall of 2020, after the…

New Year, New Home!

Happy 2022! With this new year comes a big transition for us: We moved! The LARiA Project has a new home-base, New Orleans, LA, and it is now housed at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. New Orleans brings new opportunities for our work, building our network within a a cityContinue reading “New Year, New Home!”

A Mexican Food Story, As Told By Mariana Pelaez

When asked to describe Mexican food, many people might think burritos, queso dip, Taco Bell, and Tex-Mex. While these foods of course exist, both in the US and in Mexico, Mexican food on this side of the border tends to be overly simplified and stigmatized as cheap, greasy, unhealthy hangover food. The reality is thatContinue reading “A Mexican Food Story, As Told By Mariana Pelaez”

Let’s hear from customers!

After gaining insights on Latin restaurant environments from owners and staff, we are now seeking information from customers. These restaurants want to ensure that customers are truly enjoying the food and service offered. This input is extremely important for us. As we begin to work with restaurants to develop innovative ways to facilitate and promoteContinue reading “Let’s hear from customers!”