Before I really knew what a food deserts was, I was living in the second most food insecure areas of the country. “Food insecurity” is a term defined by the United States Department of Agriculture that indicates that the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food, or the ability to acquire such food, is limited or uncertain for a household. Imagine waking up one morning and not knowing how you would eat that day, and that’s what food insecurity is.
I couldn’t see food insecurity around me. I live two blocks away from Whole Foods and a Fresh supermarket. Sure, food was expensive but what isn’t in a major city? And if I could survive on my $16/hour paycheck, certainly most people could too. But goodness was I wrong. After my first day volunteering with Philabundance and handing out fresh fruits and vegetables, I knew there was something serious going on.
I wrote my admissions essay to GW on food insecurity and how my time volunteering with a food bank changed my perspective on so many aspects of life and health. I talked about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and that as the wealthiest nation in the world, shouldn’t we ensure that our population has the basic necessities for life?
I always imagined I’d go back to Philly and fight for food justice. That I would be the one to advocate for a healthy and safe food system, that some day there would be a 23 year old girl who admired me just as I admire my public health hero.
When I first heard buzz about a New York Times article that poor neighborhoods and those that are typically considered more food insecure have more fast food chains, convenience stores, and full service grocery stores than affluent neighborhoods, I thought someone was lying to me.
The article presents new research about availability in low-income neighborhoods across the US, which indicates that not only do these neighborhoods have more sources of food but that there is no relationship between the type of food being sold in a neighborhood and obesity among children and adolescents.
This is kind of a big deal in the public health community.
Experts are now questioning the effectiveness of efforts to combat the obesity epidemic by improving access to healthy foods. Kelly Brownell said: “It is always easy to advocate for more grocery stores… But if you are looking for what you hope will change obesity, healthy food access is probably just wishful thinking.” The new data indicates that there is no consistent relationship between what children eat and the type of food nearby. Living close to supermarkets or grocers did not make students thin and living close to fast food outlets did not make them fat.
So now what do we do?
Last Friday, the Senate Agriculture Committee released it’s first draft of the 2012 Farm Bill. This bill includes funding for several new nutrition programs, most of which are targeted at low-income individuals. Such programs include funds for starting food hubs and expansion of the farmers market promotion program, incentives to purchase fruits and vegetables with SNAP benefits, and increased funding for including more whole grains into school lunches. All really great and important things.
But knowing what we know now, will any of this really make a difference in the diets of Americans?
The one thing I can confidently conclude is that nutrition education works. There is plenty of data on the effectiveness of EFNEP and SNAP education. We know that both kids and adults benefit from these programs. I see it in the pre-schoolers I work with, who now know that carrots are good for their eyes and to make their plates more colorful. I see it when one of them tells me about trying kale for the first time, or when they know that purple thing is an eggplant. I see it in the seniors who told me that cooking is fun for them again and they have included new foods into their diets.
I know that education works. It’s not enough to change the behavior of every resident in my neighborhood, but it will change a few. But I also know how hard it is to fight for funding, to try to protect these programs. I know that so many people don’t understand the correlation between obesity and income. I cringe every time I hear someone talk about seeing someone overweight use food stamps, and that they obviously aren’t poor if they can afford to eat so much food.
So when articles like this come out, it scares me. I worry that the general public will loose the value of education programs. That they wont really understand how serious food insecurity is.
So my challenge to you is to look for information in your neighborhood. What’s the obesity rate? How many people can afford a healthy diet?
To my friends in Charlottesville, would you have guessed that 26% of adults living in Charlottesville are obese and only 67% report having access to healthy foods? Or that the overall food insecurity rate for Charlottesville is 17.0%, higher than the state rate of 11.8%? Food insecurity could be in your neighborhood too, you just have to open your eyes to it.
Thanks Elizabeth!
