The Negative Effects Of Food Deserts

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

However, many corporations still avoid neighborhoods that have food deserts. For example, “Food retailers promised to open” at least, “1,500 grocery stores” in food deserts by 2016, but only about 250 have actually been opened (Associated Press 1-4). Many supermarket chains have made empty promises that they have no intention of fulfilling. By not going through with their promises, companies have ended up harming many people’s health. Due to businesses not building grocery stores in some areas, individuals from a lower social class are not given the chance to fix their

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.

Food desert are urban, suburb, and rural boroughs without ready access to fresh healthy and economical food. The communities that are considered food deserts, has no grocery stores or supermarkets within a walking distance from their household. The families that live in those areas do not have access to transportation; therefore, they consume food that is accessible, which is usually processed. Most stores that people, living in a food desert, go to is convenience stores, which are usually near their households, and are accessible to some healthy foods. Another, place where many people receive their food from is fast food, and the food from those places is greasy and fattening. The lack of access to healthy food could lead to a lot of disasters,

Currently in the Unite States, food deserts spread all over the country and are expanding to many more rural areas. There are several attempts in many different research that tries to measure, locate and label food desert but in the end, there has not yet been an official scientific way to measure whether a place is included in a food desert and much more study is needed. However the USDA used the Census and Population data to create a food desert locator, which could be accessed by the general public. According to the food desert locator provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), it is obvious that west America is much more threatened by food deserts comparing to

The importance of preventing childhood obesity proposal to reduce the prevalence of obesity complications such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, stroke, and some cancers during their life. Also, decreasing the incidence of depression, poor self-esteem due to social discrimination among children. As well as saving medical costs related to obesity and its complications (Galson, 2008).

In our society, obesity in children becomes a huge problem because around one third of all of the children and adolescence in USA are suffering from it. More importantly, those numbers keep increasing. Jack Shonkoff, MD mentions that children who are obese are at greater risk for diabetes, later hypertension of heart disease, asthma and a variety of other health problems (HBO Docs, 2012). Francis Collins also emphasizes that obesity puts children at greater risk of cancer and brain diseases later on in life (HBO Docs, 2012). In addition, Dr. Elsie Teveras states that she is afraid that we will have the first generation of children, whose life expectance will be lower than their parent’s (HBO Docs, 2012). It was also clearly stated that as

Child obesity has spread throughout the years throughout the world and it is still spreading as of today due to the increase of people being inactive, but the majority of the cause is due to the high in sugar and fat snacks we call junk food. According to the American Obesity Association, approximately 15% of children between the ages of six and nineteen suffer from obesity by the consumption of excessive fats and sugars from junk food (Lee,Sprague 4).This is a major problem as child obesity can carry on to the age where kids develop in teens which can impact future health benefits of other foods. The increase of child obesity increased from more than quadrupled from 4% in the late 1970s to around 20% in the 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination survey (Turner, Chaloupka 3). As of today, child obesity is still