Sacramento Food Deserts

"Anybody who talks about California hedonism has never spent a Christmas in Sacramento." — Joan Didion

One would expect that the capitol of California, the state with the largest economy in the United States, would reflect its prosperity and wealth. However, Joan Didion's words reflect a truth that deviates far from expectation. Our project focuses on three of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals: no poverty, zero hunger, and good health and well-being. These core issues affect Sacramento due to major inequities around food access, especially for minority communities.

Our project analyzes Sacramento urban food deserts (ESRI/NPR) and USA census data on race (ESRI/Census Data) in order to identify neighborhoods that are most at-risk. This project aims to answer the question: do minority-majority census tracts have a higher probability of being located in a food desert compared to white-majority census tracts?

Observations:

White-majority neighborhoods are centralized in the city center, where the density of grocery stores is more evenly spread.

Minority-majority census tracts are near the outer city limits where grocery stores seem to be absent and not as evenly spread as the city center. Notably, North and South-West Sacramento have large areas that are minority-majority with no grocery stores.

Through analysis of different data layers, our project identified that there is a relationship between food access and race. In order to meet the SDGs -- no poverty, zero hunger, and health and well-being -- bridging the gap of food accessibility remains important.

Knowing the locations of possible food deserts and the demographics most affected by them are important in understanding an evident problem. The next step is to utilize the existing data and reallocate city resources into food access programs and funding.

There have been steps taken to address food access and inequalities, especially in South Sacramento. However, we noticed that they are highly clustered and not necessarily prevalent in the possible food desert areas. Additionally, there is only one food bank in North Sacramento, despite a large chunk of area being designated as a possible food desert.

Food deserts are indicative of inequality and access issues, which disproportionately affect some communities more than others. Efforts to address these problems and improve our neighborhoods are important.

Another important resource for communities is local markets, which help to increase food access, especially in the farm-to-table and local produce aspect. The above map illustrates Sacramento community markets, including: community gardens (green), ethnic markets (blue), and farmers markets (stalls).

Our question: Do minority-majority census tracts have a higher probability of being located in a food desert compared to white-majority census tracts?

Yes, data suggests that minority-majority census tracts are more likely to be located in a food desert. Race and environment play a role in determining one's ability to access fresh and healthy food, along with other community resources.