Promising Strategies to Improve Access to Fresh, Healthy Food and ...

PolicyLinkLimited Access to Healthy FoodIncome and Race Matter• In Atlanta, wealthy black communities havefewer grocery stores within a five-minute traveldistance than wealthy white communities,Lower-income, African American, and Latinosuggesting that a neighborhood’s racialcommunities have fewer supermarkets andcomposition plays a role in food access,other retail outlets that provide affordable,independent of income levels. 18high-quality nutritious foods than wealthierand predominantly white communities, 12 andpredominantly African American and Latinoneighborhoods have fewer nearby supermarketsthan predominantly white neighborhoods. 13For example:• In Chicago and Detroit, residents inpredominantly African American neighborhoodshave to travel farther than residents in otherneighborhoods to reach a grocery store.Moreover, in lower-income and AfricanAmerican neighborhoods in these cities, there• Nationally, low-income zip codes have 25percent fewer chain supermarkets and 1.3are far more fast-food restaurants than grocerystores. 19times as many convenience stores compared tomiddle-income zip codes. 14• In Washington, DC, the city’s lowest-incomeand almost exclusively African American wards• Nationally, predominantly black zip codes haveabout half the number of chain supermarketscompared to predominantly white zip codes,and predominantly Latino areas have only athird as many. 15(Wards 7 and 8) have one supermarket for every70,000 people while two of the three highestincomeand predominantly white wards (Wards2 and 3) have one supermarket for every 11,881people. 20 One in five food stamp recipients lives• In Los Angeles County, middle- and upperincomein a neighborhood without a grocery store. 21communities have 2.3 times as manysupermarkets per capita as low-incomecommunities. Predominantly white communities• In California, lower-income communities have20 percent fewer healthy food sources thanhigher-income ones. 22have 3.2 times the supermarkets of predominantlyblack communities, and 1.7 timesthose of predominantly Latino communities. 16• Stores in lower-income and people of colorcommunities tend to stock poorer qualityproduce compared to stores in middle- and• In West Louisville, Kentucky, a low-incomeAfrican American community that suffers fromhigh rates of diabetes, there is one supermarketfor every 25,000 residents as compared to thecounty average of one supermarket for every12,500 residents.higher-income, and predominantly whitecommunities. 23 For example, in Detroit, producequality is lower in a predominantly black,low-income community compared to a raciallymixed, middle-income, suburban community. 24Healthy Food, Healthy Communities13