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Food deserts in low income communities
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Though not the only country plagued with this issue, some of the United States’ most well-known cities, like Philadelphia, Chicago, and Baltimore, are home to food deserts, which are “characterized by the combination of very few food outlets and high poverty in a given geographic area” (Kato, 2014). Detailed in the Baltimore Sun article, “Baltimore to Give Tax Break to Attract More Grocery Stores”, are the efforts to be rid of food deserts in the western part of the city of Baltimore in Maryland. By implementing a lowered tax incentive for grocery stores, grocers are encouraged to put stores in food deserts, like the Save-A-Lot that was instated in West Baltimore. More grocery stores in such areas is an aid to the elderly and disabled in the community, who have difficulty traveling long distance to get healthy food, and for the community as a whole, which has a large concentration of individuals who are low-income and have trouble paying for high food prices at most grocery stores and a twenty-year life expectancy difference from its wealthy counterpart (Wenger, 2015). This article relates to chapter two of the Tice/Perkins text, specifically the feudalistic views of the poor, namely …show more content…
Cities are becoming more proactive about dealing with food deserts, mainly by giving tax breaks, as in Baltimore, to grocers that are willing to come to low-income, desertous areas. Pushes from environmental groups are also taking an impact on the cause, as the fight for healthy food has become a hot topic in that arena as well. Communities themselves are also taking a stand against food deserts, by doing their own growing of food and creating urban farms, starting up community markets, and starting programs to bring fresh food to deserts (Block, Chavez, Allen, & Ramirez,
In “Called Home”, the first chapter of the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year in Food Life, Barbara Kingsolver presents her concerns about America's lack of food knowledge, sustainable practices, and food culture. Kingsolver introduces her argument for the benefits of adopting a local food culture by using statistics, witty anecdotal evidence, and logic to appeal to a wide casual reading audience. Her friendly tone and trenchant criticism of America's current food practices combine to deliver a convincing argument that a food culture would improve conditions concerning health and sustainability. I agree with Kingsolver that knowing the origin of food is an important and healthy benefit of developing a true food culture, but it is impractical to maintain that everyone is able to buy more expensive food. Kingsolver presents a compelling argument for developing a food culture, however this lifestyle change may not be practical or even possible for a poverty-level citizen. The following essay will summarize and respond to Kingsolver’s argument to demonstrate how “Called Home” is a model for novice social scientists.
Many in the U.S., today, try to eat well,balanced, meals to order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. They do so by purchasing their food at farmers markets or making their own meals, so their food isn’t processed or genetically modified. Even though people are trying to maintain health in order to live long lives, without medical complications, many don’t have the opportunity to pursue life like this. In “Research shows food deserts more abundant in minority neighborhoods,” the author, Kelly Brooks, portrays an anecdote and logical reasoning, from Kelly Bower’s research, to thoroughly describe the food deserts in poor minority neighborhoods and how this issue needs to be repaired.
A major issue that is occurring in America is a phenomena known as “food deserts”, most are located in urban areas and it's difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food. Whereas in the past, food deserts were thought to be solved with just placing a grocery store in the area, but with times it has become an issue that people are not picking the best nutritional option. This issue is not only making grocery store in food deserts are practically useless and not really eliminating the issue of food deserts because even when they are given a better nutritional option, and people are not taking it. In my perspective, it takes more than a grocery store to eliminate ‘food deserts’. It's more about demonstrating the good of picking the nutritional option and how it can help them and their families. For example, “Those who live in these areas are often subject to poor diets as a result and are at a greater risk of becoming obese or developing chronic diseases.”(Corapi, 2014).
Food deserts are places where healthy foods are not produced nor sold. Unfortunately, Chicago is filled with food deserts. Approximately 600,000 people reside in areas that consist of food deserts (Gallagher, 2006). Nearly 200,000 of those people are children. These children do not have the opportunity for healthier options, which shows an increase in obesity rates (News One Staff, 2011). There are 77 Chicago communities and out of that 77, 23 are food deserts (Gallagher, 2006). Chicagoans-particularly the black communities- are forced to live off the accessible food that is near them. The food deserts are in Austin, North Lawndale, Armour Square, Near South Side, Fuller Park, Grand Boulevard, Washington Park, Woodlawn, West Lawn, Chicago Lawn, Englewood, Ashburn, Auburn Gresham, Beverly, Washington Heights, Morgan Park, Roseland, Pullman, South Deering, Riverdale, South Chicago, and West Pullman (Grossinger, 2007). The communities are usually served by junk food- filled corner stores, which do not offer an abundance of healthy foods. The communities are in desperate need of change.
“Food Deserts” are arears where people have a hard time finding affordable, healthy food. These places are usually low-income neighborhoods that do not have any supermarkets nearby but have convenience stores that sell junk food and fast food places around them. Ron Finley, a guerrilla gardener, lives in a “food desert” in South Central Los Angeles. He plants fruit and vegetable gardens to help nourish his community with healthy eating. In the article “Giving the Poor Easy Access to Healthy Food Doesn’t Mean They’ll Buy It,” Margot Sanger-Katz states that “merely adding a grocery store to a poor neighborhood doesn’t make a very big difference” because the diets of the residents living in those neighborhoods did not change. I think “food deserts” are only a part of the bigger problem in America because obesity is everywhere, not just in low-income
Food shopping when you are poor in America doesn't mean taking the minivan out to Costco; it can mean walking to the only "supermarket" in the neighborhood, often a small corner retail operation with high markups on food and household supplies.With so many people in poverty it is questioned if giving the poverty aid is even a solution as stated by David Cheal in his book New Poverty: Families in Postmodern Society, “Throwing money at social problems is no longer
In the year 2015, around 40 million U.S. citizens were food insecure (Randall para. 3). Food insecurity can be defined in paragraph 3 by “[having] difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members due to a lack of resources. This 12.7% of American citizens also contains another group - children. Aged 10-17, 6.8 million adolescents struggle with a food insecurity. There have been several years of cuts to the social programs designed to help these people, along with the Great Recession continuing to leave an impact on the U.S. economy (para. 6). Under the Obama administration, $8.6 billion was cut from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps. From 1993-2001 under the Clinton administration, former President Bill Clinton’s administration “gutted the welfare system” (para. 15). Because of these budget cuts, the families who rely on food assistance from the government have been allotted less throughout the years. From a sociological perspective, the concepts of sociological imagination, class stratification, and social location are in effect when it comes to child hunger in the United States. Being hungry is an issue larger than any one individual can control.
In providing help to people who find themselves in food insecure households, people can be found who are skeptic of their true need. One of biggest myths of the disadvantaged is that they have poor shopping habits or shop in convenience stores where prices are extremely higher than compared to those in grocery stores. Another ...
Alviola IV, Rodolfo M. Nayga Jr., and Michael Thomsen to learn more about what food deserts and how they impact the society around them. I believed that this was a good source because it went into what food deserts are and how they might be connected to the increase of obesity. I learned that a food desert is an “area where access to healthy foods is limited or constrained” (Alviola 106). I also learned that studies have shown people who live in food deserts “are likely to pay higher prices for food and have limited options in terms of purchasing healthy foods” (Alviola 106). After reading this article I have realized that Xavier may also be in a food desert because the closest grocery store is Kroger whose produce is almost always non-fresh and does not look edible to eat which encourages people to leave and resort to eating fast food for every meal. Needing more information about the effects of Food Deserts I started to look at an article called, “The Effects of Food Deserts on the Weight Status of South Dakota Children”, written by Emily Niswanger, Elizabeth Droke, Suzanne Stluka, and Kuo-Liang Chang. I believed that this was a great next source to look into because the name of the article was exactly what I wanted to get more information about. The source was about one study that was made in the state of South Dakota to discover if food deserts do have an effect on
Walking down Golden Gate Avenue, I felt the cold San Francisco air hit me as I stepped into the Tenderloin for one of the first times in my life. I noticed groups of homeless people huddled in tents and sleeping bags as far as the eye could see. Up to this point, all of my preconceived notions about this area of the city seemed true, the drug paraphernalia, the homeless people, and the surplus of liquor stores. By walking into the front doors at St. Anthony’s Dining Room, I would never look at that neighborhood with the same condescending attitude.
Food deserts is when people are in need of access to healthy foods. There are many actions that can be taken to lessen the risks of obesity and type 2 diabetes. The first thing that can be done is public awareness, to inform others that food deserts are increasing. As it notifies the community and from that, they can start to creating plans or building up organizations for people living in food deserts. First, people who are living in a food desert have a limit of transportation and to get to a location, it is a challenge to do so. How to overcome the barrier of limited transportation is to carpool with people that they know, for example, family members, friends, coworkers, etc. Also, when families plan their meals, they should just go to the
For economists and politicians, there are a few things that still are not considered, and the missing answers are only piling up; someone always has to win or lose out. Food policies are one of them. Bringing urban agriculture to cities is an incomparable move. When community food growing flourishes, the consumers seem to be healthier and smarter about what they eat, less p...
South Central Farm was a 14-acre plot of land that was ran and operated as a fully functional urban farm. It provided much needed support to the community around the farm, that consisted mostly of lower-income and minorities. The farmers, who ran the largest urban city farm at the time, used it for monetary benefit as well as psychological benefit to the community. By growing their own steady supply go goods, many who would not have access to these products normally, benefited immensely from the farm’s existence. If the farmer’s had had the monetary means for remaining on the land, the closing down of the farm could have been avoided.
With limited transportation options, these people are forced to rely on convenience stores and small-scale grocers that do not typically have a large variety of fresh fruit and vegetables. To compound the problem, food deserts are oftentimes laden with fast food restaurants. One study found that the density of fast food restaurants was inversely associated with neighborhood household income (Hilmers, Hilmers, & Dave, 2012). This same study also found that convenience stores were more prevalent in economically deprived communities and communities consisting of mostly minority populations (Hilmers, Hilmers, & Dave, 2012). The principle behind environmental justice is to provide fair and equal treatment to all people. These people are not being provided fair and equal access to the healthy foods that they need and deserve. Accessibility plays a huge role in the consumption of foods. These people are being limited to unhealthy food options which puts them at increased risk of a number of diseases and health
One hundred percent of those with an income above $125,000 and seventy –eight percent of those with an income between $80,001-$125,000 were willing to purchase it. The individuals surveyed who earned an income less than $42,000 were willing to purchase the reduced priced expired food 65.5% of the time and those who were in the middle class earning between $42,000-$80,000% were willing to purchase it 52% of the time. This deviated from the original hypothesis since it was thought the lower and middle class were more likely to purchase the food than the upper class. It is surprising that the people in the lower class and middle class supported it the least since it can be thought that they would be the class most benefitted by the reduced prices. Perhaps this is because they don’t want to feel inadequate by purchasing the reduced price food while those with a higher socioeconomic status are more secure with their income. Another reason could be that people with a higher socioeconomic status tend to be better educated; therefore, they might be more aware of the environmental distress caused by food waste.