The Grocery Gap: Who Has Access to Healthy - The Food Trust

PolicyLinkThe Food TrustPrefaceFor decades, low-income communities of color havesuffered as grocery stores and fresh, affordablefood disappeared from their neighborhoods.Advocates have long drawn attention to this criticalissue and crafted policy solutions, but access tohealthy food is just now entering the national policydebate. While the problem is obvious to impactedcommunities, good policy must also be based onsolid data about the issue and its consequences.Unfortunately, it often takes years for the researchto catch up with pressing needs in historicallyunderserved communities. Sometimes information isnot available. Other times, evidence is accumulatingbut it is buried in journals not widely read bypolicymakers. Or it is produced by practitioners andadvocates for local action campaigns and not acceptedby researchers or shared with policymakers or thebroader field. Too often, research focusing on lowincomepeople and communities of color, informedby their experiences, or conducted in partnershipwith them, is perceived as a political strategy,rather than as a legitimate search to understandproblems and inform strategies for change.PolicyLink and The Food Trust conducted thisinquiry to summarize the existing evidence base,carefully reviewing more than 132 studies. Wefound that a large and consistent body of evidencesupports what residents have long observed: manylow-income communities, communities of color,and sparsely populated rural areas do not havesufficient opportunities to buy healthy, affordablefood. The consequences are also clear: decreasedaccess to healthy food means people in low-incomecommunities suffer more from diet-related diseaseslike obesity and diabetes than those in higherincomeneighborhoods with easy access to healthyfood, particularly fresh fruits and vegetables.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adultobesity rates are 51 percent higher for AfricanAmericans than whites, and 21 percent higherfor Latinos. Black and Latino children are morelikely to become obese than white children. Thelack of healthy food retail also hinders communityeconomic development in neighborhoods thatneed private investment, activity hubs, and jobs.Thankfully, the tide is beginning to turn. Researchersand policymakers are coming to consensus thatthis is a critical issue. And they are recognizing thatcommunities have developed innovative, sustainablesolutions that can work in other locales and at largerscales. In December 2009, 39 members of Congressfrom both political parties issued a resolution in theHouse of Representatives recognizing the need fornational policy to address limited access to healthyfood in underserved communities. The President’s2011 budget calls for more than $400 million toestablish a national Healthy Food Financing Initiative,and this initiative is a key component of the FirstLady’s Let’s Move campaign to reduce childhoodobesity. Legislation to create a Healthy FoodFinancing Initiative is expected to be introduced inboth the House and the Senate in Spring 2010.This report presents powerful data. It confirmsthat as a nation we must answer the appeals ofcommunity activists seeking access to healthy foodfor their families and their neighborhoods. Wehope that it provides policymakers, advocates,philanthropists, and others with information,evidence, and analysis that can inform their effortsto eliminate “food deserts” from neighborhoodsand communities across the country.Inequitable access to healthy food is a majorcontributor to health disparities. According to theAngela Glover BlackwellFounder and CEOPolicyLinkYael LehmannExecutive DirectorThe Food Trust5