Food Areas Associated By Poor Access For Healthy And Affordable Food

Food Insecurity and food accessibility are major problems not only in rural areas but also low-income urban areas throughout the United States. The term “food desert” or an area with limited or no access to healthy, affordable and nutritious food was coined during a U.K. Study into food accessibility for those in the lowest income neighborhoods which contained no major grocery store and had the lowest rate of car ownership. This problem has come across the pond and we've seen many major grocery retailers flee from cities and move to the more profitable suburbs, what's worse is as grocery stores consolidate they leave many neighborhoods under served by convenience stores or fast food outlets. The prevalence of more processed, unhealthy

Many of the people living in food deserts are people with low income. These low-income families often turn to the junk food provided at the convenience stores and fast food restaurants because it is all they can afford. Socio-economic status is a defining characteristic of food deserts. Food deserts are most commonly found in areas dominated by minorities and low-income families. Studies show that wealthy areas have about triple the amount of supermarkets as poor urban areas do. In addition to this, predominantly white communities have about 4 times as many grocery stores as predominantly black ones do. Studies also show that grocery stores in African-American neighborhoods are usually smaller and have less option when it comes to the

Many areas in the United States contain an abundance of neighborhoods that function with little to no healthy food sources nearby because of the large number of people in poverty. With the fleeing number of locally owned grocery stores and convenient fast food restaurants sprouting in urban and rural areas, residents do not have an adequate quantity of fruits and vegetables readily available. The City of Baltimore defines a food desert as “an area where the distance to a supermarket is more than one quarter of a mile; the median household income is at or below 185 percent of the Federal Poverty Level; over 30 percent of households have no vehicle available; and the average Healthy Food Availability Index score [convenience stores, corner stores, and supermarkets] is low” (Food Deserts). Baltimore City today “ranks second among similarly sized cities for the number of low-income people living in food insecure areas” (Freishtat, 2014). Leaving eight percent of white Baltimoreans living in food deserts compared to the 35 percent of black Baltimoreans, and 30 percent of children living in food deserts in Baltimore alone (Buczynski, 2015).

Approximately twenty-three million Americans live in food deserts. Food Deserts are categorized as areas that are more than a mile away from a supermarket, and these areas happen to be concentrated in urban and impoverished cities. Living in these food deserts has resulted in approximately sixteen million children in America experiencing food insecurity multiple times throughout the year. This means they do not have access to healthy food choices, which results in their main nutrition intake coming from heavily processed foods.

Whitley, S. (2013). Changing Times in Rural America: Food Assistance and Food Insecurity in Food Deserts. Journal Of Family Social Work, 16(1), 36-52. doi:10.1080/10522158.2012.736080

The United States has struggled with the health of their population for decades. The fight has been against an ineffective health care system with rising rates of inactivity and obesity. These two states increase the likelihood of chronic diseases from occurring. There have been many debates in the political arena on how this issue needs to be addressed. In order for a solution to be effective, we must look upstream. We must look at why people are eating poorly and why people are more sedentary than decades before. I believe the main culprit is an access issue. If people are not provided basic necessities, such as healthy foods, then no policy will be beneficial. In this paper, I will be discussing the issue of food deserts in Nevada including

Even with Michelle Obama’s commitment to eradicate food deserts nationwide by 2017, (YOUTUBE VIDEO) the number and severity of food deserts in the Sedgwick County area is continuing to grow. Research suggests that food deserts are more likely to 1) be in low income neighborhoods, 2) be in minority neighborhoods, and have groceries offered at a higher rate (food is more expensive). Additionally, food deserts tend to have a higher concentration of fast food restaurants (Morland, Wing, Roux, & Poole, 2001) and some studies suggest a positive correlation between BMI and food deserts (Gallagher, 2014). Because crime tends to occur more often in low income neighborhoods, other studies suggest that unsafe play environments could be more positively correlated to BMI than food deserts (Booth, Pinkston, & Poston, 2005). This is controversial at best and further research needs to be conducted to determine the relationship between childhood obesity and food deserts. In Wichita the demographics of food deserts are on target with research and it is plain to see why it’s happening here and in places across

Can you imagine not being able to access good quality, fresh food? That’s the struggle that the residents of Homewood, Pennsylvania, face every day. Homewood is a food desert, which is defined by google as “an urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food.” For our last project in my Urban Research and Design class this year, my teacher challenged us to turn our newfound knowledge into action, and attempt to apply what we’d learned to a real community problem.

Our team believes there are many factors that affect the ratios of food deserts and fast food densities which further cause chronic diseases. Our team has picked four different socioeconomic factors as antecedent variables, to test their relationships associate with the ratios of food deserts and fast food densities. The first socioeconomic factor is “Lack of Access” which is defined as the inability to access fresh, healthy produce, fruits and vegetables. The second socioeconomic factor is “Economic Disparities” which is defined as the differences of economic status between Jackson Heights (low income) and Bayside (affluent). The third socioeconomic factor is “Neighborhood Stability” which is defined as the safety of Jackson Heights and Bayside. The final socioeconomic factor is “Racial and Ethnic Disparities” which is defined as the percentages of ethnic groups and food intake behaviors within Jackson Heights and Bayside.

Fixing food deserts is about more than just building grocery stores in low-income areas. There is much more that can be done in communities to build a strong food system. It is challenging, nearly impossible, to state the be intervention practices for food deserts. It is difficult to implement the same intervention in all communities, because no two communities are exactly the same. Nevertheless, interventions and policies of the past give other policy makers ideas for intervention in their own neighborhoods; an intervention built on the community’s

Food deserts, defined by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), are areas “that lack access to affordable fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat milk, and other foods that make up the full range of a healthy diet”. The causes and impacts of food deserts are based on racial, health, economic, and environmental factors that influence one another. In response to this issue, there is both local and federal action being taken to find a solution.

Thibodeaux, Jarett (2015) City racial composition as a predictor of African American food deserts, Urban Studies Journal. 1-15

Food deserts are an active problem influenced by economic, demographic, and transportation shifts in rural and urban areas. An article in the Huffington

In a Policy Forum article published in PLOS Medicine, Jason Block and S V Subramanian, from Harvard University, United States, stated that the self-motivation to put an end to food deserts in low-income, geographic communities that do not have access to a large grocery store, may not have an effect on enhancing dietary quality or lessen the great difference in the diet quality.

“Food Desert” refers to an area in a rural or even urban region with little or no access to big grocery stores that provides affordable and fresh food for people to have a healthy diet. These areas are mostly composed of low-income households who are often Hispanics and African-Americans (Ploeg and Breneman et al). They are often “trapped” in a geographical location where only small convenient stores, which do not have sufficient supply of all common, fresh and healthy food, are available. Currently, there are 13.6 Million Americans who have difficulties in accessing to super markets and large grocery stores. People living in such areas with limited access to grocery stores spend 19.5 minutes more to travel, comparing to the people living in non-food-desert areas (Ploeg and Breneman et al).