The purpose of this study is to inform promising strategies that can curb SSB and excess fruit juice consumption and potentially provide safe, palatable potable drinking water as an alternative by building capacity in systems thinking among diverse stakeholders that serve families with infants and toddlers in Puerto Rico. The study will employ Group Model Building (GMB) – a participatory, iterative process within community-based system dynamics that enables the co-creation of qualitative causal maps (i.e., causal loop diagrams-CLD) among diverse stakeholders and decision-
makers representing multiple sectors in Puerto Rico. The CLD facilitates visualization of factors in a system and elicit community members’ insights and recommendations to promote systems change.
Start Date: October 2022
Organization: George Washington University
Project Lead: Uriyoan Colon-Ramos, ScD, MPA
Focus Areas: Beverages, Early Childhood, Healthy Communities
Resource Type: Commissioned Research Project Summary
Keywords: Community setting, Sugar-sweetened beverages
Age Group: Pregnant women, infants and toddlers (ages 0 to 2)
State: Puerto Rico
Related Research
November 2025
Measuring the impact of charitable food program cuts on the nutritional quality of foods
This study examines how sudden cuts to USDA programs supporting the charitable food system (i.e., The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement (LFPA)) affect the supply of healthy food available for distribution by food banks. Existing data from 15 food banks will be analyzed, and additional data will MoreNovember 2025
Forecasting WIC funding needs: Supporting families, strengthening access
WIC serves more than 50% of all infants born in the U.S. The goal of this study is to build a forecasting model to estimate national WIC funding needs under various policy and economic conditions through fiscal year 2027. The model will also be designed to allow for updates to forecast funding needs for future MoreAugust 2025