Social, economic, and environmental factors strongly influence people’s access to healthy foods. By using policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) strategies, community nutrition outreach and education efforts may be able to achieve a more equitable and widespread impact on nutrition security. Dr. Shea Cantu and Dr. Stephanie Grutzmacher will describe the need for upstream approaches to community nutrition and the unique value of research-extension collaboration in identifying these approaches. She will share several examples of formative evaluation research and PSE initiatives that aim to improve food access and the food safety net for low-income populations, including studies of barriers to SNAP and food pantry participation and a large-scale fruit and vegetable SNAP incentive program