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Desserts and Food Deserts
If Oreos are easier to find than oranges, you might live in a food desert.
For many of our mobile-market participants, desserts—and other ultra-processed foods—are the easiest foods to find when you live in a food desert. Fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole foods that support nutrition security? Not so easy.
Food deserts are sneaky because of the many subtle factors that create them. You can live right next to one and not even realize it.
A food desert is identified by looking at census tracts (neighborhoods of about 4,000 people) with both low income and low access to healthy food retailers.
A low-income census tract is one where at least 20% of residents live below the poverty line, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
A low-access census tract is one in which 33% or more residents must travel more than 1 mile in urban areas—or 10 miles in rural areas—to reach a grocery store.
According to the USDA, 12.8% of the US population fit the low-income/low-access criteria.
Right here in downtown Little Rock, Arkansas, some of our mobile-market neighbors must travel more than a mile to reach a grocery store with fresh produce. Many are elderly, disabled, or without reliable transportation. For them, convenience stores become the default—and nutrition insecurity becomes a daily reality.
This is why Well Fed brings healthy food access directly into underserved communities through mobile grocery markets and boxes, nutrition education, and food-as-medicine programs. Access and education can be the difference between thriving and surviving for a community.
In our Q&A Thursday series, our executive director, Joshua Harris, breaks down terms related to food access and nutrition security. In the video below, Josh shares what food deserts look like on the ground at two of our downtown mobile-market locations.
Take a look.