The Food Of A Food Desert Essay

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.

In Eric Holt-Gimenez’s article, “The Fight over Food Deserts: Corporate America Smacks Its Way Down”, the author provides answers the food desert epidemic facing the United States today. A food desert is an area in which fresh and nutritious food is not readily available to the masses. Whether it be because of economic or geographic reasons, the fresh ingredients are often scarce and expensive. Gimenez first addresses the corporate aspect of food desert problem and how the big box companies are looking to take advantage of impoverished neighborhoods (Holt-Gimenez 525). Next, Gimenez states a solution to the problem; improving wages for the working class, not providing big business with more money to move into local areas(Holt-Gimenez 526-527). While I agree with Gimenez that having the government fund the big chain stores is not the solution; I do not think that raising the minimum wage is the answer. To solve the food desert problem, the farmers and local grocers need to be funded by the government.

In terms of governmental involvement in the management of food deserts, we argue that very little has been done legislatively by the Metro Nashville and Davidson county government. Despite the fact that several areas in the Davidson County have been identified as food deserts by the USDA, little to no legislation has been created to combat the problem and its effects on the health of its citizens. Edgehill has been put on the USDA map of food deserts, because it qualifies “as a “low-access community,” [where] at least 500 people and/or at least 33 percent of the census tract's population must reside more than one mile from a supermarket or large grocery store (for rural census tracts, the distance is more than 10 miles)” (USDA). However, the

One huge problem that the United States faces today are the large numbers of food deserts. A food desert, according to the United States department of Agriculture, is a neighborhood that has a difficult time getting quality and affordable food to their home. This means that people are not properly being fed and getting the nutrition needed for a healthy diet. The good quality food that is needed to maintain this balance is not near or affordable for the people living in these areas. Food deserts affect many people across the United States, especially those that are on the lower end of the social economic spectrum and live in rural areas. Many of these low-income families do not have the means to get to the supermarket and get the right products they need so they settle for lower quality but more cost efficient foods. A great example for a food desert would be the great city of Chicago who is ranked in the top two worst food deserts in the United State according to newsone.com.

Food deserts are one of the biggest problems in society, as the authors of Food Justice bring up (Gottlieb & Joshi, 2010). In fact, Indianapolis is ranked worst in the nation for food deserts. So what is a food desert? A food desert is when places are left with the lack of availability of nutritious foods and high rates of poverty. Often times, these are known as grocery gaps because grocery stores move out of the area, normally located in low-income communities. It makes sense that they would move to make more profit, but it leaves those in the community left with essentially nothing. Also, most people living in a low-income community do not have access to transportation, so they cannot get to grocery stores that are outside of walking distance. This is why Gleaners, a local food justice organization, steps in and fills in places where grocery stores have left. The program that works to fix this is Mobile Pantries. As I will explore later, Mobile Pantries allows people who cannot reach grocery stores the ability to get nutritious foods they need. Mobile Pantries give people a sense of going to the grocery store and picking out healthy foods. While consumer choice is limited, as Patel mentions, Mobile Pantries still gives people healthy options (Patel, 2014). Gleaners is a part of the Food Justice Movement because while they are not changing consumer choice, they are providing individuals with the option of healthy foods and working to end hunger and obesity

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

What exactly qualifies a neighborhood to be part of a food desert? Food deserts usually have a bunch of blocks without a corner grocery store. In a more severe case an entire neighborhood, or a whole bunch of neighborhoods do not have a mainstream grocery store. A mainstream grocery stored would be a grocery store like a Jewel, a Whole Foods, or an Aldi, where

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

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.

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

The “What Can We Do?” section contributes to the development of ideas in this text by transitioning the text from defining what a food desert is and why they exist, and starting a new section about what can be done to help stop food deserts, and help people within them. The first paragraph of "What Can We Do?" says "Former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign ... was one of the first programs to bring the problem of food deserts to national attention. " the inclusion of this whole section is therefore important because it shifts the central idea of the text away from food deserts being bad and replaces it with food deserts issues and how to fix them, allowing the author to fully develop their ideas throughout the whole text

All living things need to consume some type of food to survive. Just like all animals, humans need food. With the population estimated around 7.4 billion, according to World Food Programme, only 795 million people do not have the necessary access to healthy foods to live a healthy life. The vast amounts of products being sold with large amounts of sugar and other unhealthy ingredients has been affecting the human population for years. As the result of low income families in “food deserts” undernourished families are becoming more and more frequent. Undernourished women and children are affected everyday because of “food deserts.” Low income areas have supermarkets, drug stores, food markets, etc, but the distribution of healthy foods are

A food desert is an urban neighborhood or rural community without access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food (Ploeg, Breneman, Farrigan, Hamrick, Hopkins, Kaufman, ... & Tuckermanty, 2009). In urban areas, residing more than one mile away from a grocery store that stocks fresh fruits, vegetables, and raw meat is considered living in a food desert. For rural areas, the threshold is 10 miles. It is estimated that 23.5 million people live in areas that are considered food deserts, with more than half of this number being low-income families. With non-existent or limited options, those people living in food deserts often have to rely on fast food restaurants and convenience stores for daily nourishment.

It was the night of May19, 1990, a little bit of a darker and colder night for May. My mom was home for the summer from Faulkner University, she had a job working at Food World. She had agreed to go out a double date set up by her high school friend, Mindy and her boyfriend Sam. She wore jeans and a short sleeve purple sweater, and was waiting to be picked up by Mindy and Sam.

When it comes to the topic of nutrition, most us will readily agree that in order to live a long and healthy life one must eat right and choose nutritious alternatives to preserved and fast food products. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of how this can “healthy lifestyle” can be obtained. Whereas some are convinced that trusting yourself and your body will lead to better choices, others maintain that eating food in moderation and more fruits and vegetables is the best path to choose. “Today, more than 95% of all chronic disease is caused by food choice, toxic food ingredients, nutritional deficiencies and lack of physical exercise.” In other words, there needs to be change in how we go about our daily diet.