The Challenge
Overview
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Food Desert Definition
(source: USDA):
“area in the United States with limited access to affordable and nutritious food, particularly such an area composed of predominantly lower income neighborhoods and communities”
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Many neighborhoods in Kansas City have been labeled food deserts.
Studies have linked food deserts to:
Many people living in food deserts lack food sources, means, and sufficient information and to properly nourish themselves.
Food Insecurity & Food Deserts
The terms food insecurity and food desert are related and sometimes used interchangeably.
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“Food insecurity is a situation that exists when people lack secure to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development for an active and healthy life style.”
(source: Food Insecurity Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems or FIVMS)
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Understanding food deserts within the context of food insecurity helps clarify their relationship.
Food Insecurity – The Broad View
At its most basic level, food insecurity describes situations where people are uncertain where their next meal will come from. This condition can exist at several levels: country, state, city, neighborhood and household. People may face food insecurity once in a while, frequently or all the time.
The broad causes of food insecurity include:
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the unavailability of food
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ineffective food distribution;
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limited buying power; and/or
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improper use of food within the home (source: FIMVS)
Food Deserts - They are not all alike
Studies on food deserts in the U.S. have identified the following characteristics:
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they can be urban, suburban and/or rural;
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mainstream grocery stores are absent or scarce in a significant geographic area; and
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typical residents are lower income but not everyone living in a food desert is poor
Food Deserts - In Kansas City
The following table estimates the number of people living more than one mile from a grocery store in our community.
| County |
# of Residents living more than
one (1) mile from Grocery Store |
| Jackson |
36,713 |
| Wyandotte |
12,914 |
| Cass |
9,951 |
| Clay |
10,460 |
| Platte |
5,253 |
| Johnson |
9,853 |
Source: USDA Food Environment Atlas
Neighborhood-Level Food Insecurity
Additional questions help gauge the level(s) of food insecurity for specific neighborhoods including:
What is the Level of Available Healthy Foods?
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How far is the average resident from a mainstream grocery?
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How many fast food outlets, liquor stores and conveniences stores are in the neighborhood in compared to mainstream grocery stores?
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How far away are the less healthy food sources compared to mainstream grocery stores?
How Accessible are Healthy Foods?
Special Issues
Answering these questions helps civic and philanthropic groups define the most effective solutions for solving the food security issues of individual neighborhoods.
Food Deserts – The Reality
People tend to buy food that is easy to access.
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If people only have access to less healthy foods at convenient stores, gas stations and liquor stores, they buy less healthy food with premium price tags and are poorly nourished.
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Beans&Greens aims to change this scenario by developing innovative channels that offer accessible and affordable locally grown produce.
Sources:
Feeding America. “Hunger in the U.S.” http://www.feedingamerica.org/faces-of-hunger-101/hunger-andpoverty-statistics.aspx
Food Desert Oasis Act of 2009. http://www.govtrack.us/congress.billtext.xpd?bill=h111-3100
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Policy Brief - “Food Security.” Issue 2. 2006. ftp://ftp.fao.org/es/ESA/policybriefs/pb_02.pdf
Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems (FIVIMS). http://www.fivims.org/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&pop+1&page=0&Itemid=37
Food Research and Action Center. “Hunger in the U.S.” http://www.frac.org/html/hunger_in_theus/hunger_index.html
Maria Colenso. “What is a food desert?” Howstuffworks. http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/food-desert.htm
United State Department of Agriculture – Economic Research Service. “Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food: Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences – A Report to Congress,” 2009. http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/AP/AP036/AP036a.pdf
United State Department of Agriculture - Food Environment Atlas. http://maps.ers.usda.gov/FoodAtlas/