Food Desert
A food desert refers to an area that lacks convenient access to nutritious food options, like fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats, often due to the absence of nearby grocery stores or farmers' markets. These regions frequently coincide with low-income neighborhoods where residents may not have reliable transportation, making it challenging to travel to stores that offer healthier food choices. Instead, food deserts are typically saturated with fast-food outlets and convenience stores that primarily sell processed and unhealthy foods. This limited access to nutritious foods can lead to serious health issues, including obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. Historically, the concept emerged in the 1990s in the UK and gained attention in the US with initiatives aimed at improving food access, notably during the Obama administration. Although efforts such as the Healthy Food Financing Initiative and community gardening programs seek to alleviate food deserts, challenges persist, including affordability and cultural adaptation to new food options. As of recent years, food insecurity remains a significant issue, affecting millions of households and highlighting the need for comprehensive solutions to improve food access in these underserved areas.
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Food Desert
A food desert is an area that does not have a supply of healthy foods, such as fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats. This is due to the absence of mainstream grocery stores and farmers' markets within a convenient traveling distance, such as less than one mile of walking distance from a person's home. Most times, food deserts encompass impoverished areas. Many residents of these locations lack transportation, making it difficult for them to travel to grocery stores that sell nutritious foods. The areas, however, usually have an overabundance of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores selling cheap and processed foods. Limited access to healthy foods can be detrimental to an individual's health. While many efforts have been made to reduce the number of food deserts throughout the United States, millions of people still lacked access to fresh foods in the 2020s.
Background
The term food desert dates back to the 1990s in Britain, where lack of grocery stores and its ramifications were studied. The idea reached the United States in 2004 when the state of Pennsylvania passed the Fresh Food Financing Initiative, which offered financial assistance to grocery stores that opened new locations or expanded fresh food supplies in food deserts. A federal version of this bill was passed in 2010. First Lady Michelle Obama, who championed the importance of healthy food and an active lifestyle, brought the issue to the forefront in the United States during her husband's two terms in office. As part of the First Lady's Let's Move! initiative to end childhood obesity, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) developed an atlas showing food deserts throughout the United States.
The atlas depicts the areas that are designated food deserts. These are determined by a variety of factors, such as how far residents in an area must travel to reach a grocery store; the availability of public transportation; socioeconomics of the area; and household data, such as income and race. Research has determined that both rural and urban areas experience food deserts. However, they are more common in low-income areas, especially ones with limited public transportation options. For example, a neighborhood that has a grocery store within two miles but has no bus access might be considered a food desert, while an area where most people own cars with a grocery store within ten miles may not be seen as a food desert.
This data has some issues because many of the areas not designated food deserts have grocery stores that do not meet the needs of their residents because they tend to offer little or no fresh food. They also may have limited food choices. For example, people with food allergies and restrictions, such as lactose intolerance or gluten sensitivities, may have a hard time finding foods they can consume. Food deserts create food insecurity, or the inability to access food because of factors such as location and income. In 2022, about 12.8 percent of all US households were food insecure. Food insecurity creates stress and may mean people go without food and experience long or frequent periods of hunger.
Some food deserts have an imbalance in the types of foods offered. These areas typically have numerous outlets that sell unhealthy processed foods, such as fast-food restaurants, gas stations, and convenience stores. The types of foods available in such businesses are usually junk foods and packaged and processed foods, such as chips, cookies, soda, and candy bars. While some may provide fresh produce, these items are typically very expensive, which further dissuades people from purchasing them. Consuming unhealthy foods can lead to or exacerbate diet-related health issues such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic illnesses, cancer, and hypertension.
Overview
The addition of grocery stores and farmers' markets to food deserts is not a simple solution. Many people living in food deserts have adapted their diets around not having fresh fruits and vegetables available to them. This means they may not change their eating patterns to include fresh and nutritious items when new or existing stores offer them. New grocery stores coupled with nutrition and health education programs can help educate residents about healthy eating. These programs also can provide information on purchasing and incorporating fresh foods into existing diets.
Poverty hinders food desert solutions since fresh produce and meats generally cost more than packaged and less nutritious foods, and individuals might not have the funds to purchase healthier alternatives. Communities can look to government policies and economic initiatives that could give people tax breaks and subsidies for healthy foods. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, works with state and local agencies to provide nutrition assistance to low-income families.
The federal Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI), launched in 2010, expanded the Fresh Food Financing Initiative model beyond Pennsylvania and offers community development grants and facilitates public-private partnerships aimed at bringing grocers, farmers' markets, and other fresh-food purveyors into low-income, underserved areas across the country. But like SNAP, HFFI must receive congressional approval and funding; thus, such programs can be subject to partisanship. In the 2022 fiscal year the US Congress provided $183 million for HFFI, a considerable increase over the FY2021 allocation of $28 million. Legislators noted the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in early 2020, revealed the extent and challenges of food and nutrition insecurity.
Low incomes sometimes force people who have access to transportation to travel to more than one store for food to get the best prices. Because convenience stores are plentiful in these areas, one solution is for these businesses to offer healthier choices and more fresh fruits and vegetables—but at affordable prices. These stores can include marketing promotions to encourage people to purchase healthier foods.
Community supported agriculture (CSA) programs are another solution because they provide fresh produce from local farmers to residents, although these programs can be costly. Another alternative is community gardens. Areas can establish shared gardens where residents participate in the growing and harvesting of healthier foods. Individuals also can establish gardens of their own; if land is not available, they can grow foods in containers or on rooftops. Education programs about growing and using crops are also beneficial.
Online grocers are another solution used in several areas. Instead of having to find transportation to the grocery store, residents can order foods on the Internet from grocery stores that offer delivery services. This may further help individuals who work more than one job and have limited time to grocery shop. While online grocers can be an expensive option, some programs, such as SNAP, are collaborating with online retailers, including Amazon and FreshDirect, to offer more affordable services to consumers.
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