Food Deserts: Are They a Public Health Problem? BY AYA HAMLISH
East Tacoma residents are among the nearly 39.5 million Americans who live in low-income communities that do not have a supermarket (1). These communities are known as “food deserts”. The City of Tacoma has several programs that make healthy foods available to families in East Tacoma, but do these programs address the root causes of food deserts? Do they have an impact on the serious public health issues in these communities? While bringing healthy food to residents in low-income communities is important, that may not be enough. Limited transportation options, the time, effort, and knowledge required to prepare healthy meals, and the easy availability of inexpensive, fast foods are all problems that remain, even when healthy food is available. Healthy food, alone, is not enough. A food desert is defined as a low-income, urban neighborhood with limited access to a variety of nutritious and affordable food. Communities designated as food deserts have higher rates of poor nutrition and long-term health problems, such as heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and cancer (2). The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department found that 28% of adults in East Tacoma meet the criteria for obesity (3). The health of people in those communities makes the elimination of food deserts an urgent public health problem. When Jean-Pierre Dubé investigated the “food desert hypothesis” he looked at the relationship between 1) the availability of healthy food, 2) the presence of large supermarkets, and 3) the price of the food (4). Dubé found that when a full-service supermarket was introduced into a food desert, there was no change in the healthfulness of the food purchased (4). He suggests that having a grocery store does not solve all the problems of a food desert. Other factors, including transportation, convenience, and cost, have
an impact on peoples’ food choices. People in low-income communities often rely on public transportation to get to jobs, schools, healthcare, and food. When public transportation is limited, it adds multiple barriers to eating healthy food. The PierceTransit System that serves East Tacoma is known for being unpredictable, with frequent delays and indirect routes that require transfers and additional waiting time (5). This means that people must set aside more time for grocery shopping and have to deal with waiting and transfers while carrying all of their groceries, including perishables. Dependable transportation is one of the key factors needed to address food deserts.
“East Tacoma residents are among the nearly 39.5 million Americans who live in low-income communities that do not have a supermarket.” Convenience and cost are also major factors in food deserts. Food deserts often have a lot of options for fast food or processed food that is quick, easy, lower cost compared to healthy foods, and appealing because it is high in fats, salt, and sugars (6). While Dubé claims that people prefer these options, this is not what residents in East Tacoma have said (4). They make it clear that they are “hungry for healthy cooking options” but may not have the time, resources, and knowledge to prepare a healthy meal (7). East Ta-
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