Food Deserts And Food Deserts

There is currently a food desert issue in the downtown area of Greeley, Colorado. Greeley is home to 96,539 people. A staggering 21% percent of the residents live in poverty ranking it the highest in the state. The issue in Greeley is not only the amount of people that live in poverty, but those who live in a not so desirable area. Greeley is divided into three sections. On the east side is where most of the poverty is found. The middle section of the city is average or middle class and the west side of town is the high class area where the wealthiest residents live. The issue at hand is the east side of Greeley. The most recent shut down of the only grocery store on that side has left the residents in that area struggling to find adequate groceries to fill their refrigerators and cupboards. Their only way to provide for their families is the local convenience stores. There is a convenience store on just about every corner however, there are multiple problems with having the convenience. One issue is that the prices at a convenience store are substantially higher than that of a regular grocery store. Symptoms include, lack of proper amenities on the east side of town including a grocery store. Transportation to and from the closest grocery store is limited and most people have to walk to the bus stop. The other symptoms include residents with children that can only get a hot meal at school. Most are on free or reduced lunches so the parents at least know

Food deserts are very prominent in the state of Oklahoma, not only in the rural areas but also in urban Oklahoma; to be exact food deserts can be found in 32 of the 77 counties (Rex, 2016). Food deserts are areas where full service grocery stores are scarce. In urban areas, a place is considered a food desert if a full grocery store is more than a mile away, in rural areas a place is considered a food desert if a grocery store is more than ten miles.

Those residing in food desert communities are left with a small hand full of options when they do not have a car of their own. They have no choice but to use private cars, such as taxis, or to travel several miles on foot, or use public transit to get to healthful food stores. People without cars become dependent on food sources in their nearest proximity. In rural urban food desert areas, the distance to healthful, nutritious food access is near impossible on foot. According to a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, approximately 2.4 million families in the United States are more than a mile from a grocery store and do not have access to a vehicle. The physical distance from full service grocery stores leaves people in these food deserts to be more likely to purchase food

This paper studies the economic factors of food deserts in America. Determining aspects of food store locations, supply and demand, food pricing, income, and consumer preferences are discussed as some of the economic causes of food deserts. Ten articles are used to support this paper with unique standpoints on this topic. Subjects that these articles examine are consumer demand, healthful food pricing, business opportunity costs, effects of low income, heterogeneity and homogeneity of food choices, and the effects of low income. This paper should demonstrate that food deserts result from supply and demand, income, determinability of food market locations, and demand preferences.

Food Deserts In Low-Income Neighborhoods A food desert is where part of an area doesn’t have fresh vegetables or fruit and other healthy foods available near them. A food desert is basically a lack of vegetables and fruit. In the article What is a food desert? by Beck Derison, she states that a food desert is determined by “Race, socio-economic standing, location, and your access to transportation”.

In our society full of misconceptions over whether or not a person can afford to eat healthily or whether they’re “too lazy” for any kind of governmental aid as well as child lunches at school have no long term effects on learning or expanding. These are some of the broadest, misunderstood stigmas and statistics of an American society that have devastating effects on every aspect of life such as health, financial independence, food security and on the economy. All of these events are caused by a cycle based of class, education, and perhaps location due to the fact that some of the poorest areas in the country are in rural areas that may not have the funding or be in reach of necessities to break them from this cycle. Is this occurrence an overlooked

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Woman, Infants, and Children (WIC) was established in1972. This federally funded program’s primary focus is the nutritional harm that hunger, and poverty creates specifically for mothers, soon-to-be mothers, children and infants (Blau and Abramovitz, 2014). This program has seen an influx of participants over the many years since its existence. Recently, in 2009 WIC underwent major changes that would benefit both mothers and their children. WIC required its participants to buy healthier foods and pushed grocery stores to provide healthier foods for the participants (Block and Subramanian, 2015). Most recipients of WIC are low-income and more than likely live in neighborhoods with food deserts.

“…food insecurity is ‘limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable food in socially acceptable ways.”(Block&Kouba, 2006, p.1). The absence of healthy and quality food to residents, of urban food desert communities, is a civil right concern because these residents do not have equal access to healthy foods as do other communities. Urban food desert communities are met with food insecurity when grocery stores are vandalized, rodent droppings are found around the produce, and the produce is rotten or has poor quality. According to a report on the study of food

Without communication to honest grocery supplies, people end up with expensive, or buying food with partial nutritional value, or both. Fresh fruits and vegetables are essential for a fit diet are short supply. Food deserts can result in deprived health, stretched budgets for those who can afford it, or long bus trips to other neighborhoods. Worse, the dilemma of grocery access is brutal for the elderly, single parents, and the disable. It’s not just an inner-city land use concern, it’s a problem with intense social justice implication.

However, they are putting their body at risk for serious health issues. For instance, weight gain, which then will escalade into obesity, which then puts them at risk for type-two diabetes, and causes several other health issues, like high blood pleasure, high cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, depression and much more. Therefore, it is important to be educated and recognize if you or anyone you know are living in a food desert to challenge yourself to make better decisions when shopping for food at your local grocery store. This can be a life changing experience, which can change your life and people around you as well. Making healthier decisions is the first step to making differences in your life, and the world as

In this journal article, the authors delve deeper into the subject of food deserts. They mentioned about the definition in details, the theories of formation, the arguments on the existence of food deserts, and the things that need to be done to eliminate the food deserts problem. The article show both sides of argument in food deserts which further elaborate the issues at hand. The authors also summarize how the economics, class, race, and also food cultures reflect backs on food deserts.

Grocery stores. They seem like such a basic service that most people don’t even think twice about. Who would have known that they’re actually unavailable to many communities across America. How are Americans supposed to get the nutrients and healthy foods they need when they don't even have access to… a grocery store? These communities are called food deserts and approximately 23.5 million people are affected by them (DoSomething). Eradicating food deserts has become a significant problem in nutrition programs across the nation and should be prioritized immediately.

Usually, when people think of malnutrition and hungry they think about developing nations such as Africa. As a result of this it is more often than not overlooked in wealthy countries. What people also do not realize is that there are areas growing across the United States known as food deserts. A food desert is defined as an area that lacks access to affordable fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat milk, and other foods that make up the full range of a healthy diet. Food deserts are not found everywhere and where they form is based on racial, economic, health, and environmental factors.

Food deserts are defined as areas of relatively poor access to healthy and affordable food. This phenomenon is thought to contribute to social disparities in diet and diet-related health outcomes, such as cardiovascular disease and obesity (Beaulac, Kristjansson, Cummins, 2009). The term “food desert” reportedly originated in Scotland in the early 1990s to describe poor access to an affordable and healthy diet (Beaulac, Kristjansson, Cummins, 2009). Although food deserts can mean a literal absence of retail food in a defined area, studies of food deserts more commonly assess differential accessibility to healthy and affordable food between socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged areas (Beaulac, Kristjansson, Cummins, 2009). In other words, food deserts can simultaneously be areas saturated by access to unhealthy food (e.g., fast-food, convenience stores) and nonfood (e.g., gas stations) venues, “characterized by calorie-dense, high-sugar foods” (Brown & Brewster, 2015). As such, people living in these areas are at a clear disadvantage to how they obtain food. Over the last decade, research on food deserts has become increasingly common. Despite the burgeoning interest, there was no systemic review until Beaulac, Kristjansson, and Cummins (2009). This article addresses the gap by assessing the evidence for food deserts, specifically in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas. Food deserts in these places are arguably of more concern because a process of “deprivation

shopping. Rural households generally have greater access to cars, but those that do not— farmworkers for example—have virtually no public transportation available to them to reach stores beyond their immediate communities. Data from USDA suggest that 25 percent more of all occupied housing units report having no access to a vehicle in rural food deserts than in most rural tracts. For urban food deserts, the percentage of households without access to vehicles is anywhere from 24 to 38 percent higher than in other urban areas [8]. With limited transportation, instead of supermarkets or grocery stores, the low-income residents in these communities often must rely on the smaller fast-food restaurants and convenience stores that may not carry all