2. FOOD DESERTS DEFINED
• Urban neighborhoods and rural towns without ready
access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food
• Identified in two ways:
1. Low-income
2. Low-access
3. LETS TALK ECONOMICS
• Demand – Income, prices, time-cost
• Supply – Input costs
• Market
• Lower demand results in lower costs
• Higher demand results in higher costs
• In underserved areas this reverses
4. HARMFUL TO HEALTH
• Heart Disease
• #1 cause of death for men and women in America
• Causes heart attacks and strokes
• Prevention: No smoking, eating diet low in fat and
sodium, exercise.
• Stroke
• #3 cause of death for women
• Prevention: No smoking, losing excess weight,
exercise, healthy diet.
5. • Diabetes
• A leading cause of death for men and women
• Can cause kidney damage, heart disease, and
blindness.
• Prevention: Losing excess weight, exercise, healthy
diet.
• Kidney Disease
• 9th leading cause of death for men and women in
America
• Caused by high blood pressure and diabetes
• Prevention: Keeping blood sugar under control
HARMFUL TO HEALTH, CONTINUED
11. STOCKBOX GROCERS
• Started by students at the Bainbridge Graduate Institute
in Seattle, Washington.
• Converts reclaimed shipping containers into miniature
grocery stores
• Promotes access to fresh foods
• Reduces overhead and operating costs
• Downfall: Trouble finding customers. Gives access but
doesn’t change habits.
12. BUS MOUNTED GROCERY BIN
• Created by a student at The Ohio State University in
Columbus, OH
• Container mounted to buses to keep groceries at
needed temperature
• Gives riders a place to hold their groceries
• Replaces theft of stolen grocery carts
• Downfall: Only holds groceries of 3-4 people at a time.
Costs upwards of $1300 per mounted cooler.
13. PROVIDING FREE COOKING CLASSES
• Providing healthy food options doesn’t mean the
community will take them, or know what to do with them.
• Free cooking classes could help community members
make healthier choices
• U.S. Department of Agriculture provides free cooking
classes to women in the WIC (Women, Infants, and
Children) program in Chicago
• Downfall: Can’t force people to attend, or can you?
14. REFERENCES
• A Start-Up Tries to Eliminate 'Food Deserts' (2011, November
1). Retrieved February 25, 2015.
• Agricultural Marketing Service - Creating Access to Healthy,
Affordable Food. (n.d.). Retrieved February 25, 2015.
• Badger, E. (n.d.). One Small Solution for Food Deserts: The
Bus-Mounted Grocery Bin. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
• In a Food Desert, Cooking Classes Are Welcome, If Not
Crowded - North Lawndale - DNAinfo.com Chicago. (n.d.).
Retrieved February 25, 2015.
• National Poverty Center | University of Michigan. (n.d.).
Retrieved February 25, 2015.
• Top 10 Health Problems in America. (2013, August 16).
Retrieved February 25, 2015.
Editor's Notes
Urban neighborhoods and rural towns without ready access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food
Usually, they do not have access to a grocery store and are purely served by fast food restaurant and convenience stores that offer few to no healthy food options.
Food deserts are defined in two ways, low-income and low-access.
To be considered low-income the community must have a poverty rate of 20% or greater or a median family income at or below 80% of the states median family income.
To be considered low-access at least 33% of the population must live more than 1mile from a supermarket or large grocery store for urban areas, and 10miles for rural areas.
Nearly 23.5 million people live in a food dessert.
Approximately 2.3 million people (10%) live in low-income rural areas that are more than 10miles from a supermarket.
While there are many thoughts about why food deserts exists, recent research has shown it is all based on economics.
Demand
Income – As all standard goods are, as income increases demand will increase. Convenience stores often have higher prices because the demand is high but the supply is low.
Time – cost – The amount of time it will take to consume the food. Unhealthy fast food can be purchased and eaten instantly, while you can purchase healthy ingredients but have to prepare the meal. This also effects those who do not know how to prepare meals with ingredients.
Supply
Input costs – labor, land, capital, transportation costs, and wholesale product costs.
Though land and labor costs are usually cheaper in low income areas due to unemployment, the other costs are still fairly high.
Market
In over-served areas lower demand results in lower costs, and higher demand results in higher costs.
In underserved areas this reverses. When supply is in such low demand, costs must be higher in order to offset input costs. This is what causes food desserts.
The lack of healthy food provided in food deserts can lead to a slew of health problems in those areas. Of the top 10 health problems in the United States, 4 of them can be prevented with a healthy diet and exercise.
Heart disease kills the largest number of Americans per year, both men and women. In fact, heart disease kills more people every year than all forms of cancer combined. Heart disease leads to heart attacks and strokes, which is another leading health cause in America. Among other things, a healthy diet low in fat and sodium, both which are high in fast food and convenience store products, can help prevent heart disease.
Strokes are the number three cause of death for women in the United States. Among the preventative measures for heart diesease, losing excess weight with exercise and a healthy diet could help prevent a stroke.
Diabetes is also a leading cause of death for men and women in the United States. Type 2 diabetes, which is caused by a poor diet, is particularly harmful and can lead to kidney damage, heart disease, and blindness. While a healthy diet, losing excess weight, and exercise will not prevent type 1 diabetes, it will help lower rates for type 2 drastically.
Last, but not least, is kidney disease. Kidney disease is the 9th leading cause of death for men and women in America. It is caused by high blood pressure and diabetes. Prevention methods such as keeping your blood sugar under control, which is done specifically through a healthy diet, can help prevent kidney disease.
Did anybody notice how all of these diseases are linked to each other? Some of these diseases are either caused by the other, or lead to one another.
In Chicago it was found that areas with a food desert had a death rate from diabetes twice that of areas with access to grocery stores.
This map shows areas that qualify to be a food desert based on having both low-income and low-access to grocery stores.
This is a map of Boston, clearly not many food deserts. Yet how many people in here by a show of hands find it inconvenient to do their grocery shopping?
For me it is really difficult going because I have to take the bus, can buy very few groceries, and have no place to put my bags once I am on the bus. Not to mention, they’re really heavy to lug up the huge hill to my house. And I’m young and able bodied!
This is a map of Muniz, TX where 100% of the population live in a food desert.
Muniz is the city with the second lowest annual median household income at $11,711, only second to Blackwater, AZ.
The demographics include 99.8% latino, and .2% population.
Michelle Obama began a campaign, “Let’s Move” that seeks to eradicate food deserts by 2017.
Nearly $400million is being given in tax breaks to supermarkets that open inside food deserts.
Besides
One really cool solution to food deserts is stockbox grocers which seeks to remove the low access and low income aspects of food deserts.
Started by students Carrie Ferrence and Jacqueline Gjurgevich at the Bainbridge Graduate Institute in Seattle, Washington.
Converts reclaimed shipping containers into miniature grocery stores
Converting these stores allows for them to be placed anywhere, including parking lots which is where the first one was placed.
Promotes access to fresh foods
Reduces overhead and operating costs while supplying people with fresh produce like a large supermarket. They only serve perishables that would be used day to day, so customers would still have to go to a larger supermarket about once every couple of weeks.
Downfall: The customer base is a little scared by the idea. A lot of people don’t understand how a whole store can fit into a tiny space. A lot of time people stand outside staring at the container and have to be invited in. You can offer people a solution to the problem, but you can’t make them accept it.
One solution to the food desert seeks to reduce the low-access problem by using methods of transportation that already exist, the public busing system.
Created by Langley Erikson, a student at The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH
Container mounted to buses to keep groceries at needed temperature
Most grocery stores in Columbus fall on a bus line, therefore reducing the low-access aspect of food deserts.
Gives riders a place to hold their groceries
Replaces theft of stolen grocery carts which run about $300. An average of $10million worth of grocery stores are stolen from stores every year.
Downfall: Only holds groceries of 3-4 people at a time. Costs upwards of $1300 per mounted cooler.
The last solution I want to show you is providing free cooking classes, especially to those receiving benefits such as Food Stamps or WIC.
One really cool program in effect today is happening in Chicago, IL at the Sinai Community Institute (funded by the Department of Agriculture). This program is the only one of it’s kind thus far.
Providing healthy food options doesn’t mean the community will take them, or know what to do with them.
Free cooking classes could help community members make healthier choices
When women signup for WIC programs they must take a 30minute cooking class with Chef Harris. They then have the option to continue the year long program.
In this half hour Chef Harris demonstrates a recipe, has the women cook along with him, and allows them to sample the meal when the cooking is done.
All the recipes only use ingredients on the approved list for WIC.
Women often leave with full bellies, containers of leftovers, and recipes to take home and try themselves.
Downfall: Can’t force people to attend, or can you?
