Fresh Food For All: Re-Storing Food Deserts

My grandparents like to share stories about what things were like when they were growing up. According to them, everything was different then than it is today: the kinds of games they played, what school was like, what they ate. And I'm inclined to agree. Certainly the small, bustling coal-mining town they grew up in sounds very different in comparison to today's typical American town. One thing that stands out as alarmingly absent in today's town center is the good old grocery store.

Long gone are the days when Main St. was lined with the shop windows of butchers, markets, and other traditional food stores. In so many towns and cities, the grocery store is far from the town center, and far from residential areas, relegated to the strip malls on the outskirts of town. As the traditional downtown grocery stores have disappeared, many Americans find themselves left in the dust, stuck in a "food desert." Food deserts can be found in rural and urban areas alike, and showed up in the 1960s with the development of suburbia. As wealthier people moved from the cities to the suburbs, the supermarkets followed, leaving low-income city-dwellers without accessible, healthy and affordable food.

An area is labeled a food desert when the nearest quality grocery store is 10 or more miles away. In urban areas, food deserts are often characterized by a lack of reliable transportation to suburban supermarkets in conjunction with an abundance of low-quality food, like fast food restaurants and neighborhood stores with little variety. In rural areas, food deserts look a little different, but have the same affect. While those who live in rural areas are more likely to own or have access to a car compared to low-income urbanites, many live far away from the nearest grocery store. In rural areas it is not uncommon to travel 25 miles to the nearest store. Those who are not able to make the drive regularly rely on convenience store food, which rarely includes fresh produce or other quality foods.

The consequence of food deserts is poor nutrition and high rates of obesity and obesity-related disease. And since food deserts are disproportionately found in low-income areas, many experts argue that there is a direct correlation between the poor health of many low- income communities and food desert status. This correlation makes sense, and also works to debunk the common myth that people in low-income neighborhoods don't want to eat healthy foods. The reality is, that many simply don't have other options and can't access fruits and vegetables.

But change is afoot! Community gardens and farmers markets located in former food deserts provide the freshest produce directly to the communities that lack them. Initiatives like New York City's Healthy Bodega program infuses corner stores once stocked solely with unhealthy foods with much needed produce. More stores with healthy fresh foods need to be established in food deserts, rural and urban. Regardless of where you live, access to fresh, healthy food should be considered a basic need, not something reserved for those who can afford it.