Dr. Bryce Lowery, associate professor of Regional + City Planning, recently published an article titled, “Food Waste, Preference, and Cost: Perceived Barriers and Self-Reported Food Service Best Practices in Family Child Care Homes” in the journal Childhood Obesity. This publication is part of Dr. Lowery’s work with a team at the University of Oklahoma Health and Sciences Center that includes Daisy Butzer, daughter of Gibbs College Dean Hans E. Butzer.
Family Child Care Homes (FCCH) are settings where providers care for children at their own residence. The facilities face unique challenges, which may result in children not receiving optimal nutrition and having a higher risk of obesity. The objective of Dr. Lowery’s study was to determine differences in food service best practices scores between FCCHs who did and did not perceive barriers to serving healthy meals.
FCCHs perceiving food waste as a barrier had significantly lower scores for total food and beverage, fruits and vegetables, whole fruits, and nonstarchy vegetables. Providers perceiving food preferences as a barrier had significantly lower scores compared to those who did not. No significant differences were found in best practices among providers with or without perceived barrier of food costs.
This study’s results emphasized that food waste is an understudied barrier in FCCHs to serve healthy meals. Research is needed to explore these perceived barriers in FCCHs to improve best practices around meals.
Read the full article.
A project designed by Gibbs College of Architecture faculty member Austin Lightle has been selected for BuildFest 2026, a national art and architecture festival held at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in New York, on the historic grounds of the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival.
Two Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture alumni are helping shape recommendations that could influence affordable housing design and construction across Oklahoma.
The University of Oklahoma Libraries recently welcomed Carl Siegel as an Architecture Librarian and Archivist and Assistant Professor. In his role, Siegel supports students, faculty and staff across the Gibbs College of Architecture while also serving as archivist for the American School of Architecture Archives.
