The City Of Compton 's Struggle With Providing Fresh

Food deserts are places where healthy foods are not produced nor sold. Unfortunately, Chicago is filled with food deserts. Approximately 600,000 people reside in areas that consist of food deserts (Gallagher, 2006). Nearly 200,000 of those people are children. These children do not have the opportunity for healthier options, which shows an increase in obesity rates (News One Staff, 2011). There are 77 Chicago communities and out of that 77, 23 are food deserts (Gallagher, 2006). Chicagoans-particularly the black communities- are forced to live off the accessible food that is near them. The food deserts are in Austin, North Lawndale, Armour Square, Near South Side, Fuller Park, Grand Boulevard, Washington Park, Woodlawn, West Lawn, Chicago Lawn, Englewood, Ashburn,

(Love & Das, 2016, para. 7). However, Love and Das (2016) expound on the inefficiency of this solution by stating that it “does not bridge the gaps to healthy food” because of their inability to invest in the community and understand their needs (para 12). Using vivid language throughout the article, the authors make their point emotionally impactful by emphasizing that big-chain grocery stores “lur[ed…] to the hood” leave when they no longer profit from maintaining a store in these neighborhoods (Love & Das, 2016, para. 9). Rightfully criticizing the existing solution, the authors expose the superficiality and inefficient manner of only bringing in more stores into neighborhoods. Moreover, by criticizing the superficiality of the existing solution, the authors suggest that eliminating food deserts involves a more personal investment into the betterment of the community. Overall, Love and Das permit the readers to gain an emotional insight on the impact food deserts have on low-income populations and understand the limiting nutrition conditions by appealing to

Food deserts are one of the main causes of obesity in lower income areas, and while initiatives are being created to solve this problem, more than just a few initiatives are needed to change the obesity issue.

More than 20 million people live in food deserts, areas where at least a third of the population lives more than one mile from the nearest grocery store (10 miles in rural areas). Without a supermarket in the vicinity, food desert residents must get their meals from whatever options are around—often fast-food joints and corner stores. Burger Kings and bodegas aren’t exactly hitting the highlights of the food pyramid.

The issues of obesity and food deserts are important, and many people have questions about these topics. What makes this important though? To dig even deeper, what are the significant factors of both topics? The answer to the most pressing subject of modern times will now be determined.

A food desert is an area with low income that is mostly filled with unhealthy foods that can be found in fast food restaurants and local convenience stores. Since the area is already penurious or poverty stricken it causes healthy foods with the nutrients that the human body needs to be unavailable. People tend buy the foods that they can afford, which is usually the lower priced unhealthy foods. The foods they eat can be the source of being overweight which can lead to obesity or other health related diseases. It is stated in “Food deserts, Hunger, and Obesity” by Asha Brundage--Moore that in low income states they are not much grocery stores. This is what causes more of a correlation between poverty and obesity, the location plays a major role in the two. Food deserts can associate obesity with poverty due to the location’s

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

All food should be available to all people. The concept of this is dwelled on in the article, “Food justice and Food retail in Los Angeles” by Mark Valliantos. Throughout the article, Valliantos maintains the notion that healthy food should be within everyone’s reach, yet inner cities are still suffering from shortages of fresh produce. To see this issue in action, Valliantos documented this reoccurring phenomenon in Los Angeles. The author gives a description of two areas within the city of Los Angeles, and how they are economically divided based on the amount of healthy produce one has at its disposal. He makes note of programs that already exist to help low income families receive healthy foods that they could not afford. He also

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

Poverty is an issue that can be discussed at great lengths, but the real challenge is finding effective ways to reduce or eradicate poverty. It is important to spend quality time developing approaches to the issue of poverty and how to alleviate it. Individuals living in poverty lead a life of limited opportunities and one of these limited opportunities is access to good quality healthy food. The American Nutrition Association considers this lack of access as a Food Desert defined as, “parts of the country vapid of fresh fruit, vegetables, and other healthful whole foods, usually found in impoverished areas” ("USDA Defines Food Deserts | American Nutrition Association," n.d.). One way in which American’s can work towards a future with less poverty and eventually one with little to no poverty would be to eliminate the existence of Food Deserts.

Many people that lives in food deserts has tremendous possibility of being obese because the community in whole eats a lot of processed food, but some can become obese due to how they eat and burn those calories. Another health problem that people in a food desert can face is diabetes because majority of the food they eat has a lot of sugar in the food they eat. Even though, there are a lot of other health problems too, but one of the most major one is the following: cardio respiratory because the fellow person could die, but it also increases the rate of death in the US. Due to the problems of why we can’t get healthy food, our country’s obesity and death rate has gone up.

Food deserts are “Neighborhoods and communities that have limited access to affordable and nutritious foods.” (Illinois Advisory Committee, 2011, p.4). Food deserts are mostly comprised of areas or communities that do not have equal access to healthy food as do other communities, but, however, have many unhealthy options instead. People affected by urban food deserts are mostly minority groups such as African Americans and Latinos. Many single mothers and children are also often affected by urban food deserts. According to Mari Gallagher, the founding president of the National Center for Public Research, major health risks for diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are predominantly found in food deserts. Urban food deserts are a crisis in Chicago that needs to be unraveled. To eradicate the existence of Chicago’s urban food deserts, city officials must recognize food insecurity as a civil right concern, work to promote the establishment of grocery stores in impoverished communities, and sponsor nutrition campaigns to better educate residence on the importance of healthy living.

In the United States, millions of Americans are left hungry due to limited access to nutritional food on a regular basis. There is a vast disparity in those with access to food based on a number of factors, such as race, access to private transportation, and income. These factors all stem from one overarching idea, geography. Those without access to nutritional food originate from low-income areas that are miles away from a supermarket and they must depend on local convenience stores. The issue of food deserts therefore arise as particular areas in the US grow hungrier due to an inability to attain the high-quality food that many Americans are accustomed to.

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).