Building Healthy Communities Through Equitable Food Access

http://www.frbsf.org/publications/community/review/vol5_issue3/bell_standish.pdf

This article is fantastic and definitely worth reading! It accurately frames the issue of food access in America and offers some very helpful suggestions for addressing the issues on local, regional and national levels.

Something to chew on...

"Nationally, low-income zip codes have 25 percent fewer chain supermarkets and 30

percent more convenience stores, compared to middle-income zip codes. Predominantly

black zip codes have about half the number of chain supermarkets as predominantly white

zip codes, and predominantly Latino areas have only a third as many. In Los Angeles County,

wealthier communities have 2.3 times as many supermarkets per capita as areas with high

poverty."

There are ways we can address this. Advocate against grocery store redlining, ask for local convenience stores to sell fresh fruits and vegetables. Individuals should be able to use food stamps on fresh, healthy food options at these smaller convenience stores and we can promote linkages between local farmers and low-income consumers. There are promising programs and policies across the country demonstrate that the challenges to increasing access to healthy foods in underserved communities can be overcome.