Today on the BrightIdeas blog, we welcome a guest post by Clare Focht, a University of St. Thomas student. She shares her capstone project on Twin Cities food deserts with the BrightSide community as she focuses on the following: 1) the history of grocery stores, 2) demographic factors and health impacts, and 3) how Brightside Produce is helping fight food insecurity locally.
History of Grocery Stores
The USDA defines food deserts as “regions of the country that often have large proportions of households with low incomes, inadequate access to transportation, and a limited number of food retailers providing fresh produce and healthy groceries for affordable prices.” Historical practices like redlining, which systematically discriminated against minority communities in housing and lending, have contributed significantly to the formation of food deserts. Redlining was a policy that banks used from the 1930’s to the 1970’s to evaluate how risky a loan was to give to people in specific neighborhoods. These policies segregated neighborhoods based on race, limiting economic opportunities for residents and decreasing investment in public infrastructure. As a result, predominantly black and immigrant neighborhoods were often underserved by supermarkets and instead were populated by fast food chains, liquor stores, and convenience stores offering mainly processed foods.
Demographic Factors and Health Impacts
The presence and accessibility of grocery stores vary significantly based on neighborhood income and racial composition. Wealthier areas tend to have more supermarkets with a greater variety of healthy food options, while poorer areas, especially those with higher minority populations, often have fewer grocery stores and limited access to fresh produce.This disparity not only affects residents' diets but also contributes to health issues such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Analyzing chronic health condition data shows that these conditions are more common in census tracts that are also classified as food deserts.
Access to transportation plays a crucial role in food access while also demonstrating a correlation to race, with white residents having greater rates of private vehicle ownership than black residents living in the same neighborhood. Lack of personal vehicles and inadequate public transportation further restricts residents' ability to reach grocery stores, forcing reliance on local corner stores that typically offer limited healthy food options and often at higher prices.
BrightSide Fights Local Food Insecurity
Efforts to combat food deserts include initiatives like Brightside Produce, a nonprofit operating in Minneapolis and St. Paul, that aims to bring fresh produce to corner stores in underserved neighborhoods. Brightside’s grocery delivery service consists of two programs: 1) a customizable bundle of fresh produce and local add-ons with an added “food justice surcharge” to generate revenue to support Brightside’s operations and 2) a fresh produce delivery for those with low incomes at a price that matches their capabilities, funded by program #1. Their store locations closely align with food desert census tracts, ensuring their efforts have the maximum impact for those who need assistance the most. Brightside’s method of working directly with corner store owners has proven to be a successful strategy. Such programs are essential in bridging the gap in food access and improving community health outcomes.
A portion of this project involved overlaying maps displaying various demographic data (including poverty rate, vehicle access, percent white, and households using SNAP benefits) to find neighborhoods most at risk for food insecurity. The hotspots from this process aligned closely with the census tracts the USDA identified as food deserts, demonstrating the influence the variables have on the availability of healthy food. Mapping of diabetes and obesity rates also correlated to food desert status.
Addressing food deserts requires understanding the complex interactions between economic, racial, and infrastructural factors that contribute to their existence. Policy interventions, community-based initiatives, and innovative solutions like Brightside Produce are all needed to ensure equitable access to nutritious food for all residents.
For the full project and maps, click here: https://arcg.is/19jSS03