Food Deserts Are Affecting American Life

With food deserts on the rise, thirty-three point eight million Americans experienced food insecurity in 2021.  A food desert is an area lacking cheap and healthy food, leading people to take a long time out of their day to find adequate food. The “deserts” impact communities all around our country and affect many people’s lives daily. Food deserts cause a lack of healthy food and many problems like obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Solutions at local, global, and personal levels can help stop this.

The American Nutrition Association defines a food desert as “parts of the country lacking an adequate supply of fresh fruits, vegetables, and other healthy, whole foods, usually impoverished areas.” Food deserts occur mostly in concentrated areas of poverty, either rural or urban. They happen when areas lack affordable grocery stores, leaving the only solution to shopping at corner stores, gas stations, or traveling a far distance to get food. These choices leave citizens of the area with unhealthy food options and unrealistic traveling time that costs much more money and leaves lasting effects on the community. A food desert lacks availability, accessibility, and affordability.

Food deserts have many effects on the community. Some of these include cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity. These are all due to the unhealthy diet food deserts cause. Due to the lack of grocery stores in food deserts, shopping at corner or convenience stores increases. At these corner stores, there is fast, processed food and not as much healthy, fresh food as in a grocery store. Cheap food is usually more processed and has worse ingredients for you than fresh food. A study showed that BMI(Body Mass Index) and childhood obesity is on the rise, with fifty-five percent of children being obese and staying obese through adolescence. Eighty percent of obese adolescents will remain that way through their adulthood. These statistics relate to food deserts and the lack of healthy food around our country in these areas.

Cincinnati-based Kroger grocery chain runs the grocery store market, influencing a lot. As of February 2020, Kroger ran 2,800 supermarkets in Ohio, making it the largest grocer in the US, and the second largest food retailer, just behind Walmart. They ended their 2020 year with 109.8 billion dollars. With this power comes major decisions. Cincinnati neighborhoods, Over The Rhine (OTR), and North Fairmount are greatly affected by Kroger's choices, and frankly, they have left a lot of Cincinnati neighborhoods scrambling.

Pamela Adams, the president of North Fairmount's Community Council, calls North Fairmount “a forgotten community.” Until recently, the nearest Kroger was eleven miles away in St. Bernard, but most people don't have cars and rely on our public bus system. With the bus, an eleven-mile ride turns into a twenty-five-minute bus ride. You also have to switch buses midway through, plus walking time, and waiting for the bus, which can total, round-trip, two hours just for your groceries.

Over The Rhine (OTR) may be the cure to this issue. In 2019, a new Kroger store opened in OTR, but not without some trouble. In 2001, OTR was named the nation's most dangerous neighborhood in the city. The neighborhood started to become gentrified, making it less diverse and pushing low-income citizens out. Only then did Kroger put a new Kroger store there. As much as it solves a problem, Kroger only put it there after the gentrification, with the idea of making money due to the increase of middle-class citizens in that area. This leaves the idea that Kroger is not trying to fix food deserts but is clearly only implementing stores for money. Big companies like Kroger have the power to change cities, but they need the citizens' influence.

There are many ways to help decrease food deserts locally and globally. First, locally, Churches Active in Northside (CAIN) are helping food deserts in Cincinnati. CAIN provides food for those in food-insecure areas, starting with Northside. Now their offerings go beyond Northside. They have hot meals on Monday and provide once a week free grocery shopping for those who need it. CAIN also provides Ubers to people who can’t access grocery stores, bus passes, free haircuts, tax consultations, and health clinics. CAIN is supported by various other non-profits around Cincinnati. Sweet Cheeks gives diapers to CAIN, Free Store Food offers donations of food, and La Soupe gives CAIN soup containers. CAIN provides many meals around our city, and helps address the problems that food deserts and large out-of-touch companies create.

There are also many global solutions to decrease this problem. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) offers $29 a week groceries funded by the federal government. Fresh Express is a non profit organization located in Phoenix and Tempe Arizona that sells groceries on wheels with no selling markup. Twin Cities Mobile Market is a similar organization that sells cheaper groceries on wheels in under-resourced areas in Minnesota. Groceries On Wheels is a great initiative in cities because it brings healthy food to places in need, with their citizens having to get transportation.

Citizens can help out in various small ways that can really impact the community in a positive way. First, people can donate or volunteer at local organizations like CAIN because, without support, these organizations will not run, making the problem worse. Citizens can also reach out to their local grocer company, like Kroger, to help recognize the problem and make them aware of the issue. Like this, citizens can write letters to their local government officials to let them know of the problem. Hopefully those officials and companies can implement initiatives for better food accessibility and affordability. People can also grow gardens or set up a local farmers’ market to make healthy food more accessible. All of these small efforts can help us make the ten point two percent of US households affected by food deserts to zero and bring fresh, healthy foods for everyone. 

In all, food deserts lack the appropriate food for a good diet and can cause many unhealthy problems for your body. This issue needs to be looked at in our country because, even with the help of these organizations, food deserts are on the rise. By speaking up, writing letters, and donating, we can help thirty-three point eight  million Americans affected by food insecurity.