There is a high concentration of liquor stores in low-income, African American neighborhoods in South Berkeley that provide easy access to unhealthy food. This lacks access to nutritious produce and contributes to health issues like diabetes and heart disease. The research project aims to explore solutions like reconfiguring liquor stores to provide more affordable, healthy foods to address food insecurity and health disparities in the community. Surveys will be conducted with the Heart to Heart program to understand community needs and test intervention strategies in South Berkeley liquor stores. The goal is to demonstrate how liquor store reconfiguration can help urban health by increasing access to healthy foods.

1. Reconfiguring the Liquor store
Aquetea Goodman| AOC: Justice and Sustainability| ESPM 167: Environmental Health and Development
Abstract
Approaches to Address Food
Insecurity
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African American White American Low income High income
unhealthy food sources
Current Policies and
Interventions
South Berkeley
Richmond
Oakland
Case Study
There is a high concentration of liquor stores that exist in primarily low-
income, African-American neighborhoods in South Berkeley.
•There’s a liquor store on every corner in the community. Lack of
nutritious produce, but has food high in sugars and saturated fat.(refer
to map)
•One community garden and a farmers market that comes once a week
•The members of the community have a high preference for liquor
stores and has become part of their culture.(Cheap, Accessible) This
creates a huge barrier for access to healthy foods.
Health Outcomes
“Improving access to healthy food is critical component of an
agenda to build equitable and sustainable food system”
Heart disease: soft
drinks contain high
fructose corn syrup
which has been
associated with an
increased risk of
metabolic syndrome,
a condition associated
with an elevated risk
of both diabetes and
heart disease.
Low income neighborhoods provides greater access to food
sources that promote unhealthy eating that contributes to
negative health outcomes. Liquor stores is an example of a food
source that is abundant in urban areas and lack of grocery
stores which contributes to a food insecure neighborhood. The
distribution of convenience stores differs by racial/economic
characteristics of a neighborhood. The purpose of this research
project is to explore the possible solutions to provide nutritionist
affordable food in vulnerable communities by reconfiguring the
liquor store to meet the needs of the residents in South
Berkeley. This study will be conducted using various surveys
and samples with the use of intervention strategies in the South
Berkeley area that has a large population of African Americans
that suffer from high blood pressure and diabetes. I would work
closely with Heart to Heart program with the design and the
innovation of the liquor store and also meeting the health needs
of the community. I will conduct intensive research how to bridge
the health disparity gap by tackling food insecurity in urban
areas. Through this research it will demonstrate the
effectiveness of reconfiguration of the liquor store to meet the
health and social needs of urban communities in South Berkeley
as a case study. As a result, active engagement to transport
healthy and affordable produce in liquor stores will address the
health disparities and food insecurity that largely affect
vulnerable populations in South Berkeley.
Background
After World War II, capital retreated from industrial urban zones
and became highly racialized through zoning and redling. The
post industrial era introduce “junk food jungle” throughout poor
neighborhoods. The stretches of the food desert increase
demand for food that was easily accessible, convenient and
cheap thereby sending high incidence of diabetes and obesity
among the community. “Liquor stores began to serve as the
primary source of food provisioning in America’s inner cities, yet
fresh fruits and vegetables were unavailable.” This is just not a
problem but its an epidemic of social inequality in urban areas
throughout the bay area and the country.
Our Neighbors!
The Liquor Store Epidemic Current Approaches
• Ecology center provides a
Farmers market in south
Berkeley, however there is a
lack of diversity in community
participation at the market.
• Spiral Gardens Community
provides local food produce and
encourage productive use of
urban soil and community farm.
• Heart to Heart provides a
holistic approach to health
disparities by working directly
with the Public health
department to reconfigure the
liquor store, and providing
health vans in the South
Berkeley community.
My approach
1. Working directly with the
Heart to Heart program by
conducting door to door
surveys
2. Accessibility of healthy food
sources for the Berkeley
community.
3. Apply this new method
throughout the bay area and
ultimately the country.
• Public-private partnerships
introduce supermarkets to
underserved communities
• Mobile markets
• Increasing the stock of
fruits, vegetables at
neighborhood corner
stores
• Community gardens
• Local farmers markets
Health Hazard(Liquor
Stores)
Dose Response-higher
rates of mortality and
morbidity
Exposure levels(high
density of unhealthy
foods)
Risk
Characterization(Food
insecurity)
Share of Baltimore Neighborhood Food Stores with Low Availability of Healthy Food, by Neighborhood Race and Income, 2006
“A survey of 226 supermarkets, grocery stores,
convenience stores, and behind-glass stores in
106 census tracts found that 43 percent of
predominantly black neighborhoods and 46
percent of lower-income neighborhoods were in
the bottom third of availability, compared to four
percent of predominantly white and 13 percent
of higher-income neighborhoods.”