The document discusses food deserts in Trenton, New Jersey. It defines a food desert as an area without access to affordable, healthy food. Trenton has high rates of obesity and diet-related illnesses due to limited supermarket access. Only 3 supermarkets serve the city, while many residents rely on convenience stores with unhealthy options. Proposed solutions include funding to attract supermarkets to underserved areas and mobile markets bringing fresh food to food deserts.

1. Food Deserts in Trenton
SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM
• The United States Department of Agriculture defines a food desert as “as urban neighborhoods and rural
towns without ready access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food.”i In 2009, it was estimated that 23.5
million people live in low-income areas that are more than 1 mile from a supermarket or large grocery
store,ii limiting the access residents have to healthy food spatially, which is compounded by the fact that
low-income residents’ poverty made means to obtain regular transportation to supermarkets and grocery
stores more difficult.
- It is important to note that not all of the previously mentioned 23.5 million people have low income. If
estimates are restricted to consider only low income people in low-income areas, then 11.5 million
people, or 4.1 percent of the total U.S. population, live in low-income areas more than 1 mile from a
supermarket. ii
• The Food Trust, a nonprofit organization started in Philadelphia, found that obesity rates in New
Jersey are over 35 percent higher for those earning less than $15,000 a year when compared to
those earning $50,000 or above.iii
• The Food Trust also found that New Jersey as a whole has 25 percent fewer supermarkets per
capita than the national average, with poverty-stricken cities like Trenton and Camden suffering
the most from this state-wide deficit.iii
• The placement and usage of supermarkets correlates with better health outcomes. The lowest
rates for being overweight or obese in the U.S. are found where people have easy access to
supermarkets and grocery stores
- Those who live farther away from grocery stores than from convenience stores or limited
service restaurants have significantly higher rates of premature death from diabetes.
Researchers in Indianapolis even estimate that the addition of one new grocery store to a
high poverty neighborhood would result in a three-pound weight decrease among
residents.vii
- Data on time use and travel mode show that people living in low-income areas with limited access
spend significantly more time (19.5 minutes) traveling to a grocery store than the national average (15
minutes).ii In small-town and rural areas with limited food access, the lack of transportation
infrastructure is the most defining characteristic.ii
• Urban centers with limited food access are also characterized by higher levels of racial
segregation and greater levels of income inequality.
The Bonner Center for
Civic and Community
Engagement
Keith TofteIssue Brief

2. • Surveys about food access show that nearly 6 percent of all U.S. households did not always have
the food they wanted or needed because of access related problems, with more than half of
these households also lacked enough money for food.ii
- Low-income neighborhoods have half as many supermarkets as the wealthiest
neighborhoods and four times as many smaller grocery stores, according to an assessment
of 685 urban and rural census tracts in three states.vii
• It is also important to note that full-sized supermarkets and grocery stores have lower priced food
than smaller stores, such as convenience stores. A key concern for people who live in areas with
limited access is that they rely on small grocery or convenience stores that may not carry all the
foods needed for a healthy diet and that may offer these foods and other food at higher prices.ii
• Despite being one of the most affluent states in the country, New Jersey has over 25 percent
fewer per capita supermarkets compared to national averages. A nationwide study of over
28,000 ZIP codes found that lower-income ZIP codes have 25 percent fewer per capita
supermarkets than middle-income ZIP codes.viii
- Lower-income New Jersey residents are likely to suffer from obesity and diet-related health
problems at rates significantly higher than those of the population as a whole. Diabetes
rates among New Jersey’s lowest income residents are over four times higher than those
with income above $75,000.viii
- The city of Trenton itself has been identified as a food desert and designated as having issues and
symptoms similar to those of other urban centers considered food deserts with food insecurity
affecting about one in five Trenton households.
• Nearly half of the city’s children, including those as young as three to five years old, are
considered to be obese due to lack of access to healthy food.iii
• A total of 17 percent of Trenton households report regularly lacking enough food to eat.iii
• There are only three true supermarkets within the city limits, with an incredibly high number of
what food access exists being restricted to limited food service restaurants (51 percent of outlets)
and bodegas (29 percent), Trenton would have to triple its number of supermarkets to
adequately serve its residents.iii
- Compared to supermarkets, bodegas are cheaper and more accessible, but much smaller,
tending to carry unhealthy, energy-dense and overly sweetened items including soda,
candy, cooked fast food, cigarettes, alcohol, tobacco, packaged food and beverages of
minimal nutritional value.
- Overall, most Trenton area supermarkets are inaccessible without a car, representing a
major disparity. Many residents do not own cars and, while public transportation in the city
is unreliable, it is also costly.
- This lack of food access has important and dire effects: compared to Mercer County and New Jersey,
Trenton residents have more problems with their weight, with 39 percent of residents being obese
compared to 19.7 percent in Mercer County and 23.7 percent in New Jersey as a whole iii
• One in two Trenton children is overweight and obese in every age category, with the largest
difference between Trenton public school children and the average child occurring among the
youngest children, with 49 percent of three to five year olds in Trenton being overweight or
obese compared to 21 percent in the U.S.

3. POLICY & FUNDING
National
• Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI): Sponsored by U.S. Representative Allyson Y. Schwartz, HFFI is a
market-based approach to bring jobs and investment to underserved communities where healthy food
options are scarce or unaffordable.
- Schwartz’s bill would authorize $125 million to continue HFFI and help make more grocery stores,
farmers' markets, food cooperatives and other options accessible by providing one time start-up grants
and affordable loan financing.xiii
• Food Desert Oasis Act (HR 3100): Introduced by U.S. Representative Bobby Rush, the act would designate
certain cities as food desert zones. It also would define certain business as food desert businesses and
would provide tax benefits to those that derive at least 25 percent of their gross sales from the sale of
fresh fruits and vegetables.xiv
- Employers would receive a tax credit of $1,500 for every employee hired from within a Food Desert
Zone, and tax-exempt bonds would be used on a variety of store upgrades, from the actual purchase of
a building to equipment, or even product purchases.xiv
State
• New Jersey Fresh Food Access Act (NJ SB 3089): Sponsored by State Senator Donald Norcross, the Fresh
Food Access Act would provide loan and grant moneys from certain sales tax revenue to assist businesses
in providing fresh and healthy foods in areas of the State where there is a demonstrated lack of availability
of such foods.x
• Fresh Mobiles Pilot Program (AB 3688/SB 2728): This law established a mobile farmers’ market pilot
program to increase access to fresh food for residents in the Garden State’s food deserts. The pilot
targeted Camden, which had been identified by the USDA as one of the worst food deserts in the nation.
The program utilizes local vendors and food producers and a small fleet of vans and refrigerated trailers to
set up markets in the heart of food deserts.xi
Programs
 New Jersey Food Access Initiative (NJFAI): program designed to increase the supply of affordable, fresh
food in underserved areas across the state, while improving the diets and health outcomes of the state’s
residents and spurring economic development in low- and moderate-income communities. The NJFAI
provides financing to supermarket operators and developers of supermarkets statewide with an emphasis
on serving ten priority cities which include Atlantic City, Camden, East Orange, Elizabeth, Jersey City,
Newark, New Brunswick, Paterson, Trenton and Vineland.
- NJFAI provides early-stage financing with low and no cost loans, typically repaid by construction
financing. Loans range in size from $200,000 to $4,500,000, while limited grants, which range in size
from $5,000 to $125,000, are also available to eligible loan applicants.ix
- An eligible applicant project must be located in a low- to moderate-income census tract in New Jersey
or located in or projected to serve an underserved community. Projects must all demonstrably provide
a full selection of healthy, unprepared and unprocessed foods, particularly fruits and vegetables, to
area residents.ix
• Wholesome Wave’s Double Value Coupon Program (DVCP): Wholesome Wave a nonprofit founded in
2007 that is dedicated improving the accessibility and affordability of fresh, healthy, locally-grown food to

4. historically underserved communities, launched its Double Value Coupon Program (DVCP) in 2008 in order
to specifically target communities with poor food access.
- When shopping at participating farmers markets and other farm-to-retail venues, DVCP participants
receive a coupon incentive that matches the amount they spend in federal nutrition benefits (such as
the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition
Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC) towards the purchase of healthful, locally grown
food.vi
- Since the program’s first implementation in 2008, DVCP has seen sizable growth in the number of
participating markets and sales. Federal nutrition benefits and DVCP sales made at participating
markets grew from $331,000 in 2009 to over $2.3 million in 2012.iv DVCP has experienced tremendous
growth, expanding from 40 farmers markets in 2009 to 306 farm-to-retail markets in 2012.iv

5. Endnotes
i UnitedStates Department ofAgriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service:FoodDeserts
http://apps.ams.usda.gov/fooddeserts/foodDeserts.aspx
ii UnitedStates Department ofAgriculture, Measuringand UnderstandingFoodDeserts andTheir Consequences, U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research
Serive, June 2009
http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/242654/ap036_reportsummary_1_.pdf
iii TrentonHealthTeam, Community Health Needs Assessment Report Trenton, New Jersey, July 2013
http://www.capitalhealth.org/~/media/B67A9807E88E472287BCADB9CB7BCD67.ashx
iv Wholesome Wave, Wholesome Wave’s Double Value CouponProgram: IncreasingFoodAccess andLocal Farm Business Nationwide, 2012
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9xO2Xo4OIC4UU12c2JQV0VhdnM/edit
v OrganisationforEconomic Co-operationandDevelopment, Double Value CouponProgram Diet andShoppingBehavior Study, September2012
http://www.oecd.org/site/agrfcn/Double-Value-Coupon-Program-Diet-Shopping-Behavior-Study-.pdf
vi Wholesome Wave, DoubleValue CouponProgram (DVCP)
http://wholesomewave.org/dvcp/
vii Treuhaft,Sarah andKarpyn, Allison.The Grocery Gap: Who Has Access to Healthy FoodandWhy It Matters, PolicyLink, 2010.
http://www.policylink.org/atf/cf/%7B97C6D565-BB43-406D-A6D5-ECA3BBF35AF0%7D/FINALGroceryGap.pdf
viii Lang, Brian andManon, Miriam. Foodfor Every Child: TheNeed for More Supermarkets in New Jersey, The FoodTrust, 2009.
http://www.tulloch.rutgers.edu/Maps/NJSupermarkets_PhillyFoodTrust.pdf
ix New Jersey FoodAccess Initiative, Initiative Brochure, July 2012.
http://www.trfund.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/NJ_HealthyFoodRetailInitiativeBrochure_2013.pdf
x Yale Rudd Center forFoodPolicy andObesity, New Jersey LegislativeDatabase.
http://www.yaleruddcenter.org/legislation/bill.aspx?i=18&s=33
xi National BlackCaucus of State Legislators, Black State Legislators Providing anOasis from FoodDeserts One Law at a Time,2013.
http://nbcsl.org/public-policy/model-legislation/model-legislation-archives/item/1128-black-state-legislators-providing-an-oasis-from-food-deserts-one-law-at-a-
time.html
xii Supermarket News, House Bill Would Address FoodDeserts, June 2013.
http://supermarketnews.com/laws-amp-regulations/house-bill-would-address-food-deserts
xiv Cortex, Angela.Fooddesert bill would entice new grocery stores with tax incentives, Natural Foods Merchandiser. September, 2009.
http://newhope360.com/managing-your-business/food-desert-bill-would-entice-new-grocery-stores-tax-incentives