ipl-logo

Food Deserts Essay

931 Words4 Pages

With the rising price of groceries, the amount of food deserts, and the rampant amount of cheap, fast, unhealthy food in low income communities, it is no wonder that poverty level and obesity rates intersect. Without proper access to affordable groceries, coupled with the sheer amount of fast food restaurants, many families fail to get proper nutrition. Instead, meals are filled with empty calories and no time to burn them off. To what extent can we blame individuals before we have to take a look at their food environment? Without support for low income families and individuals, obesity rates will continue to rise at an unprecedented rate. If intervention does not come soon enough, will middle and lower class America soon become stuck in a …show more content…

According to an article by Social Policy Lab, roughly 1 in 6 Americans struggling to eat daily, the rate of people facing food struggles in food deserts is the highest it is ever been. A food desert is defined by the Food Empowerment Project as an urban area where it is difficult to find affordable, or good quality food. Examples include areas with only high end, out of budget food retailers, or cities where groceries stores are not available and the local populace rely on small corner stores or bodegas. Without access to the fruits and vegetables that are the strong base of a healthy well rounded diet, there is no choice but to turn to quick, high calorie, fatty, and sugar filled meals. A first step in ending any sort of food insecurity or widespread health problems would be to plant a seed directly at the source of the problem, the seed being accessible and affordable grocers. By increasing the amount of available healthy foods the amount of people struggling with both obesity and nutrient deficiency would go down at a significant rate. Having access to affordable healthy food as opposed to fast food would help residents learn healthy eating habits and reduce the need to constantly consume the fattening and overall unhealthy foods many restaurant chains provide. The first step is simple yet effective in solving a part of America's obesity epidemic, invest in …show more content…

In a 2014 study, it was found that in predominantly black neighborhoods the average distance between fast food restaurants were 3.56 miles closer then in other observed areas. While poverty was not directly correlated with fast food restaurants the correlation between fast food access and race was stronger in areas with higher poverty levels. The convenience of fast food coupled with lack of accessible grocery stores leaves having to choose between spending more money and time on good food choices, or being able to easily turn to the fast food stops that populate their local area. Low income people have few options to feed themselves and their families while taking into account their budgets. How can people's health be judged without having an understanding of their specific food environment? When people are blamed for being obese by saying they are just lazy or make bad choices, it excludes the many factors that they have no control over. Without addressing one of the root causes of obesity in lower income areas the problem will continue to get worse and many residents' health will continue to

Show More
Related
697 Words | 3 Pages

Revitalizing America’s Deserts for the better Revitalizing America's food deserts is a complex challenge that requires a comprehensive and collaborative approach to address the underlying social, economic, and environmental factors that contribute to food issues. In the article, “Revitalizing America’s Food Deserts,” Stephanie Nussbaum discusses food deserts. She examines how local, state, and federal governments, as well as the private sector, are trying to address the problems of food deserts in many communities. The government in America has been trying to tackle the issue of food accessibility and affordability for years now. “The challenges of accessibility and affordability go hand in hand” (page 108).

Read More
752 Words | 4 Pages

Summary and Review of Why is takes more than a Grocery Store to Eliminate a Food Desert Sarah Corapi’s article, Why is takes more than a Grocery Store to Eliminate a Food Desert, addresses the important issue of “food deserts”: the health issues imposed on the people living in these areas, what steps have been made to improve these unacceptable areas, and what work there is yet left to do. In the PBS article Mrs. Corapi interviews Professor Steven Cummins, whom had worked in a study over what kind of impact a new grocery store had made on the people living in a Philadelphia town. The results were more than somewhat shocking. Despite having better access to healthy foods, it seemed that many people remained trapped in their poor eating habits.

Read More
193 Words | 1 Pages

After watching the documentary "A Place at the Table" I have a lot of new views about the food insecurity and how kids are struggling with the hunger. Food insecurity plays a huge role in the development and treatment of pediatric overweight. Children who are at lower socioeconomic status, their parent(s) receives food stamps or have financial issues will choose processed and fast food to feed their family because they are cheaper than buying healthy foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables. Another factor that contributes to obesity in children is that parents may lack the education on how to provide a healthy diet on low income and nutritional education and needed to feed their children a healthy diet. A family that lives in food deserts

Read More
1690 Words | 7 Pages

These areas are often rural and contain a population of people with lower socioeconomic status. Food deserts have been an overlooked issue in the United States for the past few decades. While some nation-wide issues like gun violence lock up front pages of newspapers, the communities that are living in food

Read More
1442 Words | 6 Pages

Food deserts can appear in rural as well as urban areas with lack of market for a grocery store with fresh produce. Of the thirteen and a half million people

Read More
812 Words | 4 Pages

Food deserts are a major problem in neighborhoods around the United States and its’ a leading cause of health problems and obesity. Food deserts link to obesity and being obese put someone at more risk of having cancer and diabetes. A food desert is an area where there is lack of grocery stores and limited of healthy whole foods. “The theory of food deserts is that poor people eat poor diets in part because fresh, healthy food is not accessible in areas where they tend to live” ( Wright ). Families in low-income neighborhoods tend to be less healthy than families in high-income neighborhoods due to the unhealthier foods they have to eat.

Read More
593 Words | 3 Pages

According to RHI-Hub.com, Access to healthy and reasonable food can be a challenge for rural residents, unrelatedly of income level. Due to financial factors such as a low capacity of trades, many rural areas lack food shops and could be considered “food deserts.” Which are areas where there is limited availability of fresh, affordable foods. People who shop at rural communities may trust on less expensive and less nutritious options, such as those available at a gas station convenience store, than take a long drive to the grocery store that stocks fresh produce, milk, eggs, and other staples. In this paper I’m going to be talking about the effects of food deserts and how it effects peoples lives, how being in Rural cities such

Read More
216 Words | 1 Pages

I am choosing to examine and address the issue of “food deserts”. Food deserts are known as poor urban areas where the residents within the poor areas cannot purchase affordable, healthy food, the term food deserts was constructed to illustrate why policy makers need to look more critically at the nutrition difficulties in low-income areas (Cummins,2002). A gap in health is embedded into the interrelationship of racism, culture and the historical, economic, and political structures that make for the experience of African Americans and other racial and ethnic groups within the United States (Lewis et al., 2011). The primary concern of “food deserts” is that poor or rural areas do not have access to supermarkets, grocery stores, or other food

Read More
1460 Words | 6 Pages

The idea that “food deserts” are the leading cause of obesity is broad, complicated and somewhat paradoxical. For example, “food deserts can occur in a community when available and accessible stores fail to offer healthy, affordable food” (Source A). With the idea that food deserts are the leading cause of obesity, this broad idea states that obesity can be cured by throwing down more grocery stores and problem solved. However, as stated in source C, “We have stressed throughout the course of our work that simply plopping down a grocery store doesn't mean that these problems are instantly solved” (Source C). This counters the idea provided in source A because it opens up the idea that there are other causes to the epidemic.

Read More
591 Words | 3 Pages

The rising health problems in the United States of America are caused by poor nutrition, people who are sedentary, the lack of healthcare prevention, and many more. As reported on the Tikkun website, “Of the many systems in our world today that need to be reimagined, none is more important for our future than our food system” (1). The lack of our food system is one of the many factors that has led the United States to its uprising dilemmas; one of the many factors are the food deserts across the U.S. Food deserts are geographic areas where access to affordable healthy and nutritious food are limited, or impossible to purchase, by residents in the area. Food deserts are prone to low-income areas that can’t afford transportation, and due to the lack of grocery stores and supermarkets that sells fresh produce and healthy food within convenient distance to resident’s homes, there is a difficulty in obtaining healthy food options which leads to countless health issues. According to the Diabetes Forecast website, “About 18.3 million Americans live in low-income areas and are far from a supermarket” (1).

Read More
594 Words | 3 Pages

According to the Economic research service of the U.S department of Agriculture that the family had at times, “limited or uncertain access to adequate food, caused by either economic or social conditions.” In other words the family didn’t always have enough food to feed everyone. Among households with children, one in five 7.8 million households were food insecure. (Hunger Pg.1) How can so many Americans be hungry in a country whe4re obesity is an

Read More
762 Words | 4 Pages

In short, many people around the United States suffer from food instability and hunger. People can’t always help the situations they are in, but there are things almost everyone can do to help the hunger situation in

Read More
322 Words | 2 Pages

“Twenty-two states now have some version of fresh-food financing and there are countless local and nonprofit programs...” They claim that stores are coming to these “claimed” “food desert.” Whereas, about two percent of that population did not have a car that they could use to go to the grocery store (US

Read More
1518 Words | 7 Pages

Obesity is a major problem in the United States, and with all the special privileges given to its people, America has become very lazy. With portion sizes rising and physical activity decreasing, it is easy to see how the rates on obesity has risen over the years in America. Obesity is a major problem that needs to be resolved because it affects all people of every gender, age, and race are at risk of being obese. Obesity rates in America have nearly doubled rather tripled within the last twenty years due to the many privileges that the American people have before us. Something must be done to overcome decrease the

Read More
1029 Words | 5 Pages

As a hole there should be more restaurants that promote healthy food choices. Obesity in the United States is out of proportion and something need to be don , not necessarily at the point of government intersection but this needs to be fix some way somehow. ”public health experts say that an unhealthy diet and the lack of exercise are still the two biggest culprits. ”-Felix gusson.

Read More

More about Food Deserts Essay

Related Topics

Open Document