This document discusses food deserts and their impact on rural communities. It defines a food desert as an area whose residents live far from access to affordable, healthy food. It provides examples of rural Ohio towns classified as food deserts, where residents must drive long distances to reach a grocery store. It discusses the health and economic challenges faced by residents of food deserts, as well as programs that aim to increase access to nutritious food for those living in food desert areas.

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FEATURE
backdrop | Spring 2015
The locations of some small, rural towns isolate
residents from access to healthy, fresh food.
C
onsider how easy it can be to get a bite to eat on campus. Students
at Ohio University can find food at dozens of places, most within
walking distance. They can take a brief trip to the dining halls,
where a seemingly endless supply of food is available, or they can
indulge in one of the many delectable eateries located right on
Court Street. Students and faculty can waltz through the motions
of their daily agendas with ease, knowing that when they receive a break, they
have the option of purchasing a quality meal without having to travel terribly far.
With a Kroger and Wal-Mart located roughly three miles up the road, in ad-
dition to a the farmers market held on East State Street every Wednesday and
Saturday, it seems most residents are a manageable distance from great food. Al-
though this may be true for students and faculty living near campus, it’s another
story for those who live on the outskirts of the city who must endure poverty.
Those people live in what is called a “food desert.”
A food desert is a community, including both urban neighborhoods and rural
towns, whose residents lack access to fresh, healthy and affordable food. According
to the United States Department of Agriculture’s Economic Service, an estimated
23.5 million Americans live in a food desert. In urban neighborhoods classified as
food deserts, residents live at least one mile away from the nearest supermarket. In
rural towns, such as Athens, the requirements are modified because the population
is more sparsely distributed throughout the county. For Athens to be considered a
food desert, residents must live 10 miles away from access to fresh meat and produce.
The USDA’s Department of Treasury, Health and Human Services utilizes census
tracts in order to identify whether or not a community qualifies as a food desert. The
region qualifies as a “low-income community” if it has a poverty rate of 20 percent or
greater or if at least 500 individuals — or 33 percent of the population — live more
than one mile (10 miles for rural areas) from a supermarket or a large grocery store.
BY CHEYENNE BUCKINGHAM | PHOTO BY AMANDA PUCKETT | ILLUSTRATION BY KATELYN BOYDEN
There are five fast food
restaurants for every
supermarket.
Only 26 percent of American
adults eat three servings of
vegetables per day.
Despite common
belief, most whole
wheat bread options
contain harmful
preservatives.
DISTANCE
DEPRIVED
by
Some people develop an addiction to
processed food because it releases
more dopamine in the brain.
Some granola bars
contain excessive sugars
and artificial flavors.
High sugar content in fruit
juices may increase the risk
of developing diabetes.
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frozen stuff. You cannot get things like apples, oranges and
fresh greens. You’ve got frozen pizza, Totino’s [Pizza Rolls]
and that’s about it.”
Before Dollar General came around, Goodwin says residents
in the community would rely on local pizza places to deliver
milk, eggs and flour to their homes, enabling them to have
some kind of fresh grocery experience. In order to purchase
food from a real supermarket, his family would have to com-
mit to a 40- to 60-minute drive to get to the nearest store in
one of the bigger towns in southern Ohio, such as Athens,
Chillicothe, Jackson or Logan.
Goodwin’s mother had both him and his older brother by
age 21. As an education major living in a town with very little
occupational opportunity, the single mother of two struggled
to maintain a consistent income.
“The area in general has a lot of poverty,” Goodwin says.
“There are lots of conservative values that are outdated; it’s like
this deep, religious fundamentalism that culminates a culture
that shames education.”
He says the lack of progressivism and technological advance-
ment in town is to blame for the stigma that McArthur resi-
dents place on attending college. More specifically, the resi-
dents discourage continuing on to higher education because
of the expense and for the belief that one should stay at home
and work in the area to support the family. Goodwin believes
a sense of discouragement and absence of drive to move on
are the reasons why people do not get out of those poverty-
stricken towns.
“This culture makes it a cycle,” Goodwin says. “One of the
few ways to escape poverty is through education.”
Like Goodwin, McFadden also believes that lack of edu-
cation plays a role in the way food-desert regions develop.
He says the pattern is evident; it all starts with poor school
districts that are highly subsidized, thus serving poor food
choices. Kids’ minds are like sponges. When they are served
lunches that consist of processed, high-sodium and fat-filled
selections, they are at risk to develop poor eating habits later
as adults, simply because they grew up eating those foods. The
ignorance of childhood puts them at a severe disadvantage;
when experiencing hunger, it is instinctive to fuel the body.
When packaged and processed foods are the sole options, they
come to represent what should be eaten.
“You learn to eat things that people are disgusted by, such
as bologna,” Goodwin says. As a child, afflicted by the con-
ditions of living under a low socio-economic status, he says,
“You get this over-enthusiasm to eat; you want to be fed, no
matter what that food selection is.”
There are programs and events offered in Athens that help feed
some of the county’s hunger-stricken population. The Southeast
Ohio Food Bank’s Summer Feeding Program, which operates in
Hocking, Athens, and Perry Counties, provides children 18 years
of age and younger a free, nutritious lunch. With the help of the
Ohio Agricultural Clearance Program, which buys excess produce
from nearly 100 farmers in Ohio, children can take home fresh
commodities such as apples, cherries and peaches after receiving a
meal at one of the various feeding locations.
SE Ohio Food Bank Development Coordinator Asti Payne
believes that program offers a dual benefit.
“This program allows us to not only provide access to fresh
Francis McFadden, assistant professor of nutrition at Ohio
University, says there are two prominent factors associated
with food deserts: income and access. According to the United
States Census Bureau, 31.7 percent of the population in Ath-
ens fell below the poverty line between 2009 and 2013. In
addition to trekking a significant distance to obtain nutritious
selections, people in Athens also must worry about whether
they can afford the higher price tag that often accompanies
healthy options.
“My concern in Athens is the density of restaurants. The
ratio between quick-serve restaurants and regular restaurants
is quite skewed,” McFadden says. “The problem it creates is:
if you’ve got five dollars, do you go out and buy something
healthy or buy five value meals?”
From an economic standpoint, McFadden believes local
places in Athens that offer healthy food items, such as the
Farmacy, do so at prices that are disproportionally skewed in
the wrong direction. “I think the demand far outweighs the
supply,” he says.
McFadden expresses uneasiness when suggesting that some-
one with only a few dollars should purchase produce from the
Athens Farmers Market.
“The biggest problem with healthy food is that it seems to be for
the rich,” McFadden explains. “Our farmers market is expensive.”
Fast food chains, convenience stores and restaurants are not
accounted for in the 10-mile radius that designates a food des-
ert; only grocery stores and supermarkets are taken into consid-
eration because they serve as true food-retail outlets.
“You could live within 10 feet of a Taco Bell or Burger King
and that does not get you out of a food desert; as a matter of fact,
that is one of the problems,” McFadden says.
One of the many classes McFadden teaches at Ohio University
is Introduction to Food Systems, a course that takes an in-depth
look at food deserts and the impact they have on nutritional
well-being. Throughout the class, students learn how food des-
erts affect the nation’s impoverished population.
Chase Goodwin, an integrated media major at Ohio Univer-
sity, knows from personal experience what it’s like to live in a
small, exhausted town far from healthy food options.
Goodwin spent a majority of his childhood growing up in
McArthur, Ohio, a town in Vinton County so small it’s referred
to as a village — as of 2013, the population was 1,691, compared
to Athens’ population of 64, 681 in that same year. Despite the
extraordinary difference in residency, both regions are classified
as rural towns, and both contain a significant number of citizens
who struggle to access fresh produce.
“In McArthur, we do not have groceries,” Goodwin says.
“We have a Family Dollar and a Dollar General that sell some
ATHENS
JACKSON
McARTHUR
32
miles
23
miles
28
miles
CHILLICOTHE
LOGAN
18
miles
produce for these families, but also supports our local Ohio
farmers and prevents food waste. It really is a win-win situa-
tion for our communities.” Payne says among the three coun-
ties, the food bank is expecting to have a remarkable 36 feed-
ing sites during the upcoming summer. “The summer feeding
sites are crucial for our area where 1 in 4 children are consid-
ered food insecure,” Payne says.
McFadden sees the future for those food desert inhabitants in a
positive light. More specifically, he believes that more people are
becoming aware of the issue and how it affects overall health.
“The saying ‘you are what you eat’ is beginning to tran-
scend,” McFadden says. As a result of that boost in awareness
and knowledge of the matter, measures will be taken more
readily to improve the conditions.
One of the measures he believes will be most effective is down-
sizing supermarkets. “It seems to me that we are an all or noth-
ing market — you either got a megastore or you got nothing. A
midsized market is truly the answer so that you can hurdle the
fixed costs,” McFadden says. With fixed costs being too high in
comparison to the food margins being set too low, the incentive
to purchase healthful options at an increased cost diminishes.
”We want everyday low prices; it is how we are conditioned. We
want our food cheap,” he says.
The resolution lies within the government removing subsi-
dies in processed and packaged foods and transferring that
money to promote the purchase of nutrient-dense produce
that is harvested from regional farming. That, in short, will
enable prices for wholesome, natural food options to drop to a
more affordable price.
“I think change takes time,” McFadden says. “Farm bills
change very slowly, which is where subsidies come from.”
“I hear a lot of people [at Ohio University] say they are poor,”
Goodwin says. But in the worst of his poverty, a seven-dollar bur-
rito from Chipotle was not even fathomable, let alone the cost of
attending college. “Most of my meals were frozen, there was not a
lot of fresh food preparation,” he says.
Goodwin is still fascinated by the organic selection that is offered
at Kroger. “Organic chicken is not even on my radar, nor some-
thing I could buy,” he says through chuckles, and that is the case
for many other Athens residents. The city’s suffering outskirts are
hidden by a veil of thriving food businesses uptown and two large
dining halls on campus. With both community and governmental
efforts, the United States has the potential to see that astounding
number of 23.5 million people currently living in a food desert
drop with time. b
“This culture makes it a cycle.
One of the few ways to escape
poverty is through education.”
CHASE GOODWIN,
OHIO UNIVERSITY SOPHOMORE
Chase Goodwin, sophomore at OU, lived in a minimum 10-mile radius food desert surrounding the small village of McArthur, Ohio. When he
could borrow a car, he would drive to a nearby city for fresh produce and groceries instead of purchasing food at his local Dollar General.