Transforming Food Security: The Integrated Socio-Ecological Resilience Model (ISERM)

Downloadable PDF version available here: ISERM White Paper

Abstract

Despite substantial investments in federal nutrition programs and charitable food assistance, food insecurity continues to rise across the United States. The Integrated Socio-Ecological Resilience Model (ISERM) offers an original, innovative framework designed to address both the immediate nutritional needs of individuals and the systemic root causes of hunger. ISERM synthesizes socio-ecological theory, trauma-informed care, equity-focused community engagement, agroecological sustainability, systems dynamics modeling, and cross-sector collaboration to foster both short-term relief and long-term resilience. This paper outlines ISERM’s core components and demonstrates its practical application through case studies including the Umoⁿhoⁿ Nation Farm-to-School Initiative, Boston Medical Center’s Rooftop Farm, DC Central Kitchen, and Seattle’s Housing and Food Security Initiative. Key features of the model include multi-level integration, trauma- and equity-centered practices, community-led agriculture, dynamic resource optimization, and collaborative infrastructure leveraging—especially through partnerships with Feeding America’s expansive network. ISERM equips food security leaders with strategic tools and actionable pathways to drive systemic change. Its successful implementation will require piloted interventions, robust evaluation, coordinated advocacy, capacity-building, and sustained stakeholder collaboration.

Introduction

Despite significant investments, food insecurity remains a persistent and growing challenge in the United States. In 2023, 13.5% of U.S. households—approximately 18 million—faced food insecurity, with 6.8 million experiencing very low food security (USDA, 2023). Federal safety nets such as SNAP, WIC, and school meal programs are essential yet insufficient. SNAP alone supports over 42 million people monthly, yet approximately 42% of participating households still face food insecurity (Feeding America, 2023). Feeding America's network of 200 food banks and 60,000 pantries served nearly 50 million people in 2023; yet, issues surrounding food insecurity persist, highlighting the ongoing need for more integrated and sustainable solutions (Feeding America, 2023).

To effectively address these persistent challenges, the Integrated Socio-Ecological Resilience Model (ISERM) is proposed. ISERM is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach that integrates evidence-based practices and theoretical frameworks from diverse fields, including socio-ecological systems, trauma-informed care, agroecological sustainability, equity-focused community engagement, and systems dynamics modeling. By strategically combining these approaches, ISERM targets not only immediate nutritional needs but also systematically addresses the underlying socioeconomic and institutional factors that contribute to food insecurity. This integrative strategy fosters resilient communities capable of achieving sustainable food security outcomes, thus addressing both short-term relief and long-term systemic change.

What is ISERM?

The Integrated Socio-Ecological Resilience Model (ISERM) is an original holistic framework designed to address both immediate nutritional needs and systemic root causes of food insecurity. ISERM was developed through an agglomeration of proven practices and theoretical approaches, drawing from socio-ecological theory, trauma-informed care, equity-centered community engagement, agroecological sustainability, systems dynamics modeling, and cross-sector collaboration. ISERM recognizes the interplay of individual, community, institutional, and societal factors (McElrone et al., 2023; Nazmi et al., 2018). By integrating trauma-informed and equity-centered practices, community-driven agroecological systems, systems dynamics, and cross-sector collaboration, ISERM builds community resilience and sustainable food security (Hecht et al., 2018; Siegner et al., 2018).

Why is ISERM required?

Conventional approaches typically offer short-term relief without resolving systemic issues such as economic hardship, housing insecurity, or social inequity (Whittle et al., 2015; Figueroa et al., 2024). Fragmented interventions result in recurring cycles of vulnerability, underscoring the need for a coordinated, integrated approach, such as ISERM, to sustainably address these interconnected root causes (Hamel & Harman, 2023; Milian et al., 2023; Duffy et al., 2025).

ISERM Core Components

1. Multi-Level Socio-Ecological Integration:ISERM strategically engages individuals, interpersonal relationships, communities, institutions, and policy levels to ensure comprehensive and sustained interventions. At the individual and interpersonal levels, ISERM focuses on educational programs, nutrition counseling, and community support groups. Community-level interventions include establishing local food cooperatives and community gardens. Institutional interventions involve improving food procurement policies and enhancing nutritional standards within schools and hospitals. At the policy level, ISERM advocates for systemic reforms such as expanded access to federal nutrition programs. By operating across these multiple layers, ISERM effectively addresses the complexity and interconnectedness inherent in food insecurity, significantly enhancing community resilience and enabling long-lasting improvements (McElrone et al., 2023; Nazmi et al., 2018).

2. Trauma-Informed, Equity-Centered Practices: ISERM explicitly addresses psychological trauma resulting from systemic inequities, historical injustices, and personal hardships associated with food insecurity. Through culturally sensitive and dignity-driven practices, ISERM reduces stigma and fosters trust among historically marginalized populations. Programs are designed with the active participation of community members, ensuring cultural relevance and responsiveness. These approaches enhance equitable access, encourage sustained community engagement, and effectively mitigate barriers that have traditionally limited participation and effectiveness of food security initiatives (Hecht et al., 2018).

3. Community-Driven Agroecological Systems: At the heart of ISERM is the active involvement and empowerment of local communities through sustainable agricultural practices. These systems prioritize agroecology, emphasizing biodiversity, ecological balance, and the integration of local knowledge and expertise. Community members actively participate in decision-making processes, training programs, and the management of agricultural activities. This localized approach strengthens economic opportunities, promotes environmental sustainability, supports culturally relevant food choices, and fosters a sense of community ownership and pride, ensuring food systems are resilient and self-sufficient (Katre et al., 2022; Siegner et al., 2018).

4. Systems Dynamics and Resource Optimization: ISERM employs advanced analytical methods, including systems dynamics modeling, to comprehend and manage intricate interactions within food systems. These techniques enable practitioners to identify critical leverage points and assess potential impacts of interventions before implementation. By continuously monitoring and adapting strategies based on real-time feedback and emerging conditions, ISERM ensures resources are allocated optimally and interventions remain effective and responsive. This proactive and adaptive approach significantly enhances the capacity to predict, respond to, and manage challenges effectively, ultimately maximizing efficiency and sustainability (Milian et al., 2023).

5. Cross-Sector Integration: ISERM promotes strategic alignment and collaboration between food security initiatives and key sectors, including housing, healthcare, education, and employment. Recognizing that food insecurity intersects with broader socioeconomic determinants, this comprehensive approach facilitates coordinated solutions that address root causes, such as poverty, inadequate housing, poor health outcomes, educational disparities, and unemployment. ISERM encourages multi-sectoral partnerships, enabling efficient resource leveraging, complementary interventions, and reducing systemic vulnerability. Such cross-sector collaborations amplify impact, promote sustainable outcomes, and build resilient, equitable communities (Duffy et al., 2025).

Theory of Change

ISERM's theory of change emphasizes that achieving sustainable food security necessitates addressing both immediate nutritional needs and underlying systemic socioeconomic determinants concurrently. Immediate nutritional needs include direct interventions such as emergency food provision, nutritional education, and supplemental food assistance programs. Simultaneously, systemic socioeconomic determinants encompass long-term factors such as poverty, unemployment, housing instability, educational inequality, and systemic injustices.

By strategically integrating multi-level interventions across individual, community, institutional, and policy domains, ISERM fosters environments that address immediate food security concerns while also cultivating conditions for systemic change. The trauma-informed, equity-centered approach ensures that these interventions are culturally responsive and sensitive to historical and ongoing inequities, thus building critical trust and engagement within marginalized communities.

Community-driven strategies within ISERM emphasize the importance of active participation and empowerment, encouraging communities to lead and sustain their initiatives independently. By providing resources, training, and decision-making opportunities, ISERM builds community capacity, fostering long-term resilience and autonomy.

Resource optimization, guided by systems dynamics modeling, ensures efficient allocation and management of resources. It allows practitioners to anticipate challenges, adjust strategies dynamically, and proactively manage emerging conditions. This adaptive approach significantly reduces resource waste, enhances effectiveness, and maximizes overall impact.

Cross-sector integration within ISERM recognizes the interconnectedness of food security with broader socioeconomic issues, including housing, healthcare, education, and employment. By coordinating interventions across these sectors, ISERM effectively addresses the root causes, creating synergies that amplify the outcomes and produce more holistic and sustainable improvements.

Ultimately, ISERM's pragmatic focus on integrated, trauma-informed, community-driven, and cross-sectoral strategies fosters comprehensive and lasting improvements in food security. The model empowers communities to break the cycle of insecurity, promoting independence, resilience, and sustained socioeconomic advancement.

Case Studies Supporting ISERM

Several real-world examples effectively illustrate the practical application and efficacy of the Integrated Socio-Ecological Resilience Model (ISERM).

1. Umoⁿhoⁿ Nation Farm-to-School (Nebraska): This youth-led agricultural initiative exemplifies ISERM's multi-level socio-ecological integration by actively involving students, educators, families, and tribal leaders. The program has significantly improved nutrition through increased access to fresh produce and boosted school attendance and academic performance by engaging youth in culturally meaningful agricultural practices. By addressing historical trauma through culturally responsive and community-driven practices, the initiative builds resilience. It fosters long-term community empowerment, clearly aligning with ISERM's trauma-informed, equity-centered, and community-driven principles (The Guardian, 2024).

2. Boston Medical Center Rooftop Farm (Massachusetts): By integrating healthcare directly with food security interventions, this rooftop farm provides patients and local food pantries with fresh produce, thereby improving community nutrition and health outcomes. By linking healthcare institutions with food systems, the program demonstrates ISERM's cross-sector integration and systems dynamics strategies, creating efficiencies and optimizing resources. This pragmatic approach also fosters collaboration between healthcare providers, food producers, and community organizations, effectively addressing systemic food insecurity and improving public health simultaneously (Boston Medical Center, 2024).

3. DC Central Kitchen (Washington, DC): This initiative combines culinary job training with meal distribution, strategically addressing employment, poverty, and nutritional needs concurrently. The program exemplifies ISERM's multi-level integration by empowering individuals through skill development and employment opportunities, while simultaneously delivering nutritious meals to food-insecure populations. Its equity-centered approach actively targets marginalized communities, ensuring inclusive participation and addressing systemic socioeconomic barriers. By effectively integrating workforce development with food assistance, DC Central Kitchen operationalizes ISERM's community empowerment and equity-driven principles (DC Central Kitchen, 2024).

4. Housing and Food Security Initiative (Seattle, Washington): Addressing the intertwined issues of housing instability and food insecurity, this initiative integrates supportive housing with comprehensive food access programs. By strategically aligning these sectors, it tackles the root causes of food insecurity, providing stable living conditions alongside reliable nutrition sources. This model exemplifies ISERM's systemic, cross-sectoral integration and socio-ecological strategies, demonstrating the effectiveness of integrated interventions in creating holistic, sustainable improvements. It highlights the power of addressing socioeconomic determinants concurrently, significantly enhancing community resilience and long-term sustainability (City of Seattle, 2024).

Collectively, these case studies underscore the tangible benefits and transformative potential of ISERM, demonstrating its adaptability and effectiveness in diverse community contexts.

How ISERM Reduces Food Insecurity

ISERM systematically integrates interventions across multiple societal levels, significantly enhancing the reduction of food insecurity. Immediate nutritional needs are addressed through strengthened food distribution networks, emergency food assistance programs, and nutrition education initiatives. Concurrently, systemic interventions strategically target poverty alleviation, employment opportunities, stable housing solutions, equitable access to healthcare, and educational improvements. By synchronizing these interventions, ISERM provides comprehensive support systems, effectively preventing recurrent cycles of food insecurity and promoting long-term community stability and resilience (McElrone et al., 2023; Nazmi et al., 2018; Siegner et al., 2018).

ISERM within the Federal and State Systems

ISERM strategically complements existing federal and state programs by integrating its operations with local, community-led initiatives. Leveraging resources from federal and state programs such as SNAP, WIC, and school meal initiatives, ISERM enhances efficiency through coordinated resource management, comprehensive planning, and streamlined service delivery. ISERM facilitates stronger inter-agency collaboration, promoting data sharing, joint planning, and unified program implementation. By aligning with policy objectives and enhancing the responsiveness of public programs to local community needs, ISERM supports the development of innovative practices and informed policymaking. Collaboration between governmental agencies and local organizations under the ISERM framework optimizes existing infrastructure, reduces redundancies, maximizes resource utilization, and enhances overall effectiveness in addressing food insecurity (USDA, 2023).

ISERM and Feeding America

ISERM also aligns closely with Feeding America's extensive infrastructure, which includes a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries. By coordinating closely with Feeding America, ISERM helps to amplify impact through efficient resource distribution, effective collaboration with local partners, and strategic planning. Through ISERM's trauma-informed and equity-centered approaches, Feeding America's food distribution efforts can become even more targeted and effective, ensuring that resources reach the most vulnerable and marginalized populations. This alignment promotes capacity building at the community level, providing food banks and pantries with training in trauma-informed care, equity-driven distribution practices, and community empowerment strategies. Ultimately, this partnership ensures a more robust, equitable, and responsive approach to food security, reinforcing existing efforts and extending their reach and effectiveness in communities nationwide (Feeding America, 2023).

Integration at the Heart of the ISERM Approach

Central to ISERM is the seamless integration of federal and state programs with Feeding America's extensive network of community partners. By bridging governmental safety nets with the robust infrastructure and local insights provided by Feeding America, ISERM creates a cohesive, multi-layered response to food insecurity. This integrated approach enables synchronized planning, unified objectives, and combined resource pools, effectively leveraging the strengths of each system. Through continuous communication and coordinated efforts, ISERM fosters a collaborative environment where both governmental programs and local initiatives mutually enhance their impact. Such integration ensures comprehensive and sustained interventions that address both immediate nutritional needs and long-term systemic solutions, ultimately achieving lasting improvements in community resilience and food security.

What Does ISERM Mean for Food Security Leaders

ISERM represents a transformative and empowering framework for food security leaders, providing them with a robust set of tools and methodologies essential for comprehensively addressing the complex issue of food insecurity. By adopting ISERM, leaders are encouraged to cultivate interdisciplinary partnerships across various sectors, including housing, healthcare, education, and employment. This collaboration fosters shared knowledge, resource efficiency, and collective impact, amplifying the effectiveness of interventions.

The framework's emphasis on trauma-informed and equity-centered practices equips leaders with the necessary skills and perspectives to address the psychological and social dimensions of food insecurity sensitively, reducing stigma and building trust within vulnerable communities. Furthermore, ISERM promotes data-driven decision-making through systems dynamics and resource optimization techniques, enabling leaders to proactively identify challenges, strategically allocate resources, and dynamically adapt their interventions to evolving circumstances.

Policy advocacy is another critical dimension of ISERM, guiding leaders to actively engage with policymakers and stakeholders to drive essential legislative and systemic changes. Leaders who integrate ISERM become influential advocates capable of shaping public policies and resource allocation towards sustainable food security solutions.

Ultimately, ISERM positions food security leaders as catalysts of systemic change, providing them with actionable insights and practical strategies to achieve sustainable, equitable, and lasting impacts on food security at the community, regional, and national levels.

Next Steps: Building on ISERM

To successfully implement ISERM, food security stakeholders should pursue several critical next steps:

• Pilot Programs: Establish pilot projects that demonstrate ISERM's effectiveness and scalability in diverse community contexts.

• Capacity Building: Provide comprehensive training and resources to community leaders, nonprofits, and government agencies, enabling them to adopt and sustain ISERM strategies effectively.

• Policy Advocacy: Advocate for supportive legislation and funding policies at the federal, state, and local levels, facilitating broader implementation.

• Research and Evaluation: Conduct rigorous research to continuously evaluate ISERM's impacts, refine methodologies, and document best practices for replication.

• Stakeholder Engagement: Foster ongoing dialogues among policymakers, community organizations, academia, and private sector partners to maintain alignment and enhance collaborative efforts.

However, the first step is to register your interest in learning more about ISERM, join discussion groups, and provide your input. If you would like to know more, email me at revbrownsky@gmail.com.

Conclusion

The Integrated Socio-Ecological Resilience Model (ISERM) represents a transformative approach to addressing food insecurity, uniquely equipped to manage both immediate nutritional challenges and the systemic socioeconomic factors perpetuating vulnerability. Traditional fragmented methods, while critical in providing immediate relief, have repeatedly fallen short of creating lasting change. ISERM addresses these shortcomings by strategically integrating trauma-informed, equity-centered practices with community-driven agroecological systems, advanced resource optimization, and collaborative, cross-sector strategies.

Through a clear emphasis on multi-level socio-ecological integration, ISERM ensures comprehensive engagement, from individual and community to institutional and policy levels. Its holistic framework fosters resilience and sustainable self-sufficiency within communities, ensuring that immediate solutions become the foundation for lasting systemic improvement.

However, widespread adoption of ISERM requires collaborative action. Investing in ISERM is investing in a sustainable future, where food insecurity no longer dictates the well-being of communities. Stakeholders at all levels are invited to explore and adopt ISERM, funding and advocating for its implementation. Together, we can break cycles of vulnerability, foster resilient communities, and ensure enduring food security and equity for all.

References

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