The Public Health Effects of Food Deserts Workshop Summary (2009) / Chapter Skim
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5 Ameliorating Food Desert Conditions
5 Ameliorating Food Desert Conditions
Pages 45-66
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From page 45... ...
RESEARCH INTERVENTIONS Researchers have been evaluating different interventions to ameliorate food desert conditions. These include efforts aimed at changing the food environment in many different ways.
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From page 46... ...
(2004) reviewed 11 supermarket intervention studies, 8 of which provided information about healthy foods to consumers and 3 of which combined information with changes in access, availability, and incentives.
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Challenges to increasing fruit and vegetable availability in small stores include convincing store owners to stock healthier foods, especially fresh fruits and vegetables that are perishable and require special handling. He suggested first trying to convince small store owners to stock less risky (e.g., nonperishable)
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From page 48... ...
Reports and inquiries linked trends in retail development in which food stores were moving outside of urban areas and toward the edge of town to the development of food deserts and to public health consequences. However, empirical evidence on key aspects of these linkages was limited.
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Retailers in the United Kingdom are sensitized to the issue of food deserts to further their "enlightened self-interest." There are now 35 urban regeneration partnership stores in the United Kingdom, and Tesco is opening up stores in south-central Los Angeles under its Fresh & Easy brand. Wrigley concluded by noting that some academics in the United Kingdom are more comfortable with alternative food network solutions, rather than supermarkets, in addressing food deserts.
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From page 50... ...
In studies funded by the USDA and the National Cancer Institute, Ayala found that households shop at these types of stores an average of eight times per month, and they represent 33 percent of a family's total food basket and 84 percent of a family's total produce purchases, with much of the rest purchased at supercenters. Ayala said her research shows that working with tiendas and other small grocery stores may be an effective method to address the problem of food deserts.
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From page 51... ...
. Research from East Austin, Texas, shows some of the elements to consider in food deserts.
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Consumers are also using farmers markets as a source of fresh fruits and vegetables. Workshop participant Heidi Blanck, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
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Discussion: Research Interventions Terry Huang, of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at NIH, moderated the session on food desert intervention research. Main points included the need for multicomponent interventions, formative research, and more robust price manipulation trials.
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From page 54... ...
Gittelsohn said literature is scarce on food store price manipulations for public health interventions, making it difficult to arrive at definitive conclusions about what does and does not work. That is, although it is widely known that lowering price is used to increase sales volume, there is little documentation or evaluation of the use of prices to improve the healthfulness of diets.
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From page 55... ...
The type and number of products in tiendas is far different than those in convenience stores, and Ayala asserts that food desert conditions may not exist in predominantly Latino Hispanic communities. It would be interesting to understand whether the food environment is one of the factors that explain the "Hispanic paradox," which suggests that firstgeneration Latinos have better health outcomes than their acculturated counterparts despite greater poverty and lower socioeconomic status.
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From page 56... ...
Popkin agreed that community participation and feedback are essential to successful approaches and outcomes. POLICY INTERVENTIONS Research interventions to modify the food environment are attractive because they are fundable and measurable, however, research interventions are merely one solution to solving food deserts in communities.
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From page 57... ...
State and local governments can assist retailers in entering urban markets by providing real estate or establishing public transportation stops to commercial locations and food stores, particularly in inner cities. Yet the fact remains that locations in urban food deserts do not fit the positioning strategy of most large chain supermarket operations.
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The State of Pennsylvania also held hearings, and in 2004, this work culminated in the Fresh Food Financing Initiative (FFFI) , the nation's first public–private funding initiative set aside for retailers to open and update stores in underserved food deserts.
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Nonas explained that through the Healthy Bodega Initiative, the department is encouraging existing stores in these areas to improve their offerings of healthy foods. In a first phase, three district public health officers worked with about 350 bodegas each (more than 1,000 total)
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to make it easier for city bodegas to stock and sell healthier items. Making Healthy Food at Corner Stores Kid Friendly John Weidman reported that the Food Trust works with Philadelphia corner stores where children stop for snacks.
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Panelists shared their experiences from markets in several cities, as well as more cross-cutting lessons about community buy-in and the vital connection with government programs. Health Bucks for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Nonas described how the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene has looked for ways to support low-income residents in purchasing fresh produce at farmers markets, in part by increasing the number of farmers markets in the target areas and enabling them to accept Electronic Benefit Transfers (EBT)
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Weidman suggested that this is maybe the future of vendor transactions as the economy becomes more "electronic." Involving Communities in California Andrew Fisher, of the Food Security Coalition, described the 250member coalition as the connective tissue between advocacy and technical assistance. He discussed three projects in greater Los Angeles to provide insights about the role of the community in food desert projects: the Villa Parke Center Farmers' Market in Pasadena, Market-to-School project in Santa Monica, and urban agriculture project in Watts.
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The market-to-school project in Santa Monica also succeeded through community support. Although Santa Monica is generally a well-off community with no food deserts, Fisher noted that a large percentage of the school population is low income.
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He believes that increasing the provisions for healthy food purchases in this legislation -- particularly, increasing the monthly funding for WIC mothers and children to purchase fruits and vegetables -- would be exceptionally helpful in partially alleviating the growing incidence of obesity and diabetes among America's vulnerable children, many who live in food deserts. Schumacher also reviewed the status of new funding to promote healthy food incentives in the 2008 Farm Bill.
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In addition, Schumacher suggested that funding for the Section 4141 Healthy Food Incentive program increase from $20 million to $100 million. He also said making it easier for farmers markets to get waivers to accept federal benefits would help them expand in low-income areas.
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From page 66... ...
Community Outreach As noted above, community acceptance is important to the success of farmers markets. Instilling ownership and buy-in is also important with supermarkets.
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