GROCERY GAP: Food Access and Low-Income/Minority Communities
Low-income and minority communities are at a disadvantage when it comes to having access to healthy foods.
These communities are:
- Less likely to have a nearby chain supermarket which offers a variety of healthy food items at affordable prices,
- More likely to have non-chain supermarkets, convenience and liquor stores, as well as fast-food restaurants which offer little or no variety in healthy food items,
- More likely to have access to lower quality food at higher prices.
The lack of accessibility, availability, and affordability to healthy foods for low-income and minority community members directly impacts their health. Individuals belonging to communities with little to no healthy food outlets are more likely to be overweight, have higher rates of obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
“FOOD DESERTS” AND THEIR DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS:
Food deserts are traditionally defined as “any area where there is little or no access to healthy and affordable food.”# Accessibility, availability, and affordability are strong indicators for measuring the existence of “food deserts.”
- Accessibility: an individual’s ability to reach a food market using easy means of public or private transportation
- Availability: refers to both the variety and quality of the food items offered
- Affordability: refers to an individual’s ability to purchase a food item based on the item’s price not just relative to other foods but relative to competing necessities such as housing, clothing, and transportation.#
FOOD DESERTS ARE CHARACTERIZED BY GREAT INCOME INEQUALITIES:
- At least 2.2%, or 2.3 million, of all U.S. households live more than a mile away from a chain supermarket and do not have access to private transportation. An additional 3.2%, or 3.4 million, of all U.S. households live between half a mile to a mile away from a chain supermarket and do not have access to private transportation as well.#
- There are 23.5 million people living in low-income areas that can’t access a supermarket within 1 mile of their home; 11.5 million of the 23.5 million are low-income individuals representing 4.1% of the entire U.S. population.#
- Low-income zip codes have 25% fewer chain supermarkets and 1.3 times, or 30%, more convenience stores compared to middle-income zip codes# in addition to containing 1.25 to 1.3 times more fast food restaurants than high income neighborhoods.#
- Low-income individuals participating in the Food Stamp program, lived an average 1.8 miles away from the nearest supermarket. When eligible Food Stamp non-participants were included, this average increased to 4.9 miles away from the nearest supermarket.#
LOCAL EXAMPLES:
- Washington, D.C.’s lowest income wards contain either a single or no supermarket at all for every 70,000 residents, as opposed to two of the three highest income wards which have one supermarket for every 11,881 residents.#
- Baltimore, Maryland is another example of the income inequalities among food deserts, since 46% of low-income areas have limited access to healthy food as opposed to only 13% of areas with higher-incomes.#
- Conversely, in Los Angeles, there are 2.3 times as many supermarkets per household in high-income areas compared to low-income areas.#
- At least 20% of rural counties within the U.S. are located more than 10 miles away from the nearest supermarket.#
- Low-income households earning less than $8,000 per year paid between 0.5% and 1.3% more for their groceries compared to households earning more per year.#
- New Mexico’s rural residents have less access to grocery stores than their urban counterparts, pay more for comparable items, and have less selection. Rural residents paid an average of $30 more for the same basket of groceries than their urban counterparts.
RACIAL DIVIDE IN FOOD ACCESS:
- Majority non-Hispanic White neighborhoods have four times more supermarkets than Black-majority neighborhoods.#
- Predominantly Black communities have about half the number of chain supermarkets compared to predominantly non-Hispanic White communities while predominantly Latino communities have only a third as much.#
- Los Angeles’s predominantly non-Hispanic White communities had 3.2 times as many supermarkets than predominantly Black communities and 1.7 times as many in predominantly Latino communities.#
- 43% of Baltimore’s predominantly Black communities lacked access and availability to healthy foods compared to only 4% of its predominantly non-Hispanic White communities while 14% of its racially mixed communities lacked the same access/availability.#
- 80% of non-White residents living in Albany, New York cannot find low-fat milk or high fiber bread in their neighborhood stores.#
- Between 1997 and 2008, Black neighborhoods had the smallest increase in food store availability and the largest decrease in grocery store availability.#
HEALTH IMPACTS OF FOOD DESERTS:
- Adults living more than a mile away from a supermarket are 25-46% less likely to have a healthy diet.#
- Adult residents of rural food deserts in Mississippi counties are 23% less likely to consume the recommended fruits and vegetables compared to non-food desert counties.#
- Adults living in communities with supermarkets and grocery stores have an obesity rate of 21%, while adults living in communities with neither access to a supermarket or grocery store have an obesity rate between 32% and 40%.#
- For every additional supermarket in a census tract, produce consumption increased by 32% for African Americans and only 11% for non-Hispanic Whites.#
- Los Angeles residents who traveled longer distances to reach a grocery store had higher Body Mass Indexes. Those who traveled more than 1.75 miles to a supermarket weighed an average of 4.8 pounds more than their counterparts who traveled less distances.#
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Californians living in the least healthy “food environments” had 20% higher obesity and diabetes rates.#
NOTE: Footnotes are available.. Will be hyperlinking all.
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