Rural Hunger In Nacogdoches County

If there are any grocery stores are available in lower income areas, most of the people can’t afford the healthier, more expensive foods in the grocery store. They settle for cheaper, but filling, foods. Food deserts are also known for having more fast food restaurants available for the community. Fast food restaurants are built in bulk in lower income areas because more lower income families use them. “Low-income youth and adults are exposed to disproportionately more marketing and advertising for obesity-promoting products” (Food Research and Action Center). Since the fast food restaurant is quicker and easier to get to, and cheaper, it seems to be the better for many families.

On Tuesday evening, over fifty of our leaders from Auto, Innovation, and Recovery came to fight hunger and feed hope at the San Antonio Food Bank. Collectively they sorted through 20,330 pounds of food which resulted in 16,264 meals for the city of San Antonio and it's surrounding counties. It was an evening of camaraderie and fun that will never be forgotten.

This study constitutes an attempt to induce higher income households to donate a greater percentage of their disposable income to charitable causes. The way in which it seeks to achieve this goal is through the administration of an online survey whose primary intent is the elicitation of dissonant processes, which may serve to enhance the subjective valuation about the charity, Hunger Free Colorado. According to their website:

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

The existence of food deserts is an issue of both public health and social justice (Schafft, Jensen and Hinrichs 153). Schafft et al. made this point with reference to the state of Pennsylvania. Utilizing data from Pennsylvania, Schafft et al. studied the relationship between residences in a food desert (whose definition was established through a proximity-based model utilizing distance from large grocery stores as a criterion) and found that schoolchildren living in food deserts were more likely to be both poor and obese. Schafft et al. utilized these findings to reach the conclusion that the

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

“Food deserts,” areas characterized by relatively poor access to healthy and affordable food, may 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 and was used to describe poor access to an affordable and healthy diet (Beaulac, Kristjansson, Cummins, 2009). Although the term “food desert” 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 “food swamps,” areas consisting in a saturation of 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.

“The fact that our poverty rate is increasing is something that I think is very alarming to those of us who care very much about the health and welfare of children and see the investment in children as really the future of Texas,” said Beth Quill, executive director of Children’s Defense Fund Texas. This goes to show basically a full quarter of Texas children are poor based on these statistics. Poverty is very important because these children are the future of this world. Children who are born into poverty are more likely to live in poverty and less likely to have consistent employments as adults. To prevent this from happening there are 3 solutions that I have done extensive research on to make this happen. Therefore these solutions consist of raising the minimum wage, expanding Medicaid and reforming the way the criminal justice system works.

Texas currently ranks almost last with a 32.2 percent in jobs that don’t pay enough to support a family of four (Jillson 80). Many Texans are confused as to why income in Texas is at such a low when we are the best at producing jobs, they forget that a good portion of those jobs don’t pay enough to keep family oriented homes above water. Texas’s personal income (PCPI) and median family income are not improving, they’re just staying the same, below the United States’ ratings (Jillson 88-93). In fact Texas is ranked as one of the five poorest income states in America and fifth in income inequality.

The concept of a Food Desert is not new, “British politicians introduced the idea of food deserts in the mid-1990s… suggested a link might exist between distance to a grocery store and the diets of poor people” (Gilligan, 2014). It took many years before the idea of a Food Desert was recognized in the United States of America but it is now estimated that, “About 23.5 million people live in food deserts” ("11 Facts About Food Deserts | DoSomething.org | Volunteer for Social Change," n.d.). The inability to obtain healthy food choices leads to, “people in low-income communities [suffering] more from diet-related diseases like obesity and diabetes” (Truehaft & Karpyn, 5, n.d.). The existence of these Food Deserts is a factor that works to keep those in poverty down and makes progress even harder for them to

Agency Context: Bed-Stuy Campaign against Hunger is a non- profit organization where they work hard and together to end hunger in different sections in Brooklyn. Bed Stuyvesant and Brownville neighborhoods are targeted the most. Their Mission statement “Bed Stuy Campaign against Hunger educates and empowers New York City residents to lead healthier, more productive and self – sufficient lives. Our holistic approach values individuals and family needs and preferences while preserving dignity. BSCAH addresses the root causes of health and economic problems prevalent in the community y offering a comprehensive set of programs focused on health, education, employment, nutrition and social service”. This agency was found in 1998, by Dr. Melony

The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) atlas on food deserts shows that most food deserts in California are in highly rural (USDA, 2017). Northern California, the Mojave Desert, and the Imperial Valley all have a high prevalence of food deserts (USDA, 2017). A closer look at the map also shows a significant amount of food deserts in urban areas of highly populated cities. Large portions of neighborhoods in urban areas like Los Angeles, San Diego, and Sacramento are food deserts (USDA, 2017). In this section, we will discuss the socio-economic characteristics of the people living in both types of food

“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).

Focusing solely on grocery and convenience store accessibility fails to address the accessibility barriers residents in food deserts face, such as long walking distances and limited public transportation. Unfortunately, most public transportation systems do not consider convenient access to grocery stores when designing their routes. Different policies and programs aimed at improving access to healthy food in food deserts using transportation include transit subsidies, store shuttle services, and improved bus routes. Programs have also been implemented among corner store retailers to improve the availability and quality of food options throughout food

Community development (CD) has been playing an important role within the society as it is a critical practice that identifies and attempts to address unequal relations of power (Forde & Lynch, 2015). In CD, social capital is an important term as it refers to the networks and norms that enable collective action. In general, social capital is the level of trust between members within the community. Social workers need to understand and empower the social capital to strengthen the community through collective action based on the existing resources.