Food Deserts: A Tragedy In The Bronx

In order to gain a better grasp of this issue, we have decided to conduct our own research and survey in our local neighborhood park (Oval Park) and school (Theodore Roosevelt Campus). We have simulated significant factors that would give us some context when examining our results:

The different colors on this map reflect different levels of household income, with blue indicating a low income, white representing the median income, and green representing a high income. This map verifies the notion that this particular neighborhood is struggling financially, as most people make less than $29,800.

This map displays the population density of locations in the United States, where the darker the colors are, the more people live there, and the lighter the colors are, the less people live there. Despite the extreme being rather ambiguous for the ranges of the color red, it still confirms the notion that a specific area has more than 24,000 people residing in it, making it an immensely congested neighborhood.

Even though this area is not suffering critically from high obesity, it makes up for that through the high rates of diabetes. This is because adults and even children do not have access to healthy foods which detains them from getting unhealthy and developing diabetes.

According to this map, minorities such as Asians, Latinos, and African Americans have the highest population density in our community.

This demonstrates that not only is this community financially struggling, but those who are struggling are underrepresented groups.

1. Where do you go to shop for groceries? 
2. How far do you travel?
3. How often do you go?
4. What do you normally purchase?
5. How many people live in your household?
6. What do you identify as, ethnically/race wise?
7. In your opinion, what class do you consider yourself to be in? (Low, Middle, or Upper)
8. Have the purchases you've made remained consistent over time? (In price and of items bought).
9. Do you feel as though you live in a food desert?

When we examine these findings, we can observe that the majority of consumers buy their groceries from Stop & Shop. They drive 10-15 minutes from their residences to the grocery shop on average, and they go to the grocery store once a week. It is also worth noting that the majority of these people are minorities from the lower-middle class. The biggest difference between the responses of the different age groups is that teenagers believe the Bronx is not in the condition of a food desert, but adults and the elderly disagree. This might be linked to adolescents' lack of knowledge of real-world issues that plague the world's prosperity.

As shown by the two maps, there is a disproportional amount of delicatessen and restaurants which serve unhealthy food in comparison to the amount of supermarkets and other food stores which do provide healthy foods. This means that inherently the residents of the Bronx are more compelled towards eating unhealthy as such is what is more readily available to them, thus making this neighborhood a "Food Swamp".

The different colors on this map reflect different levels of household income, with blue indicating a low income, white representing the median income, and green representing a high income. This map verifies the claim that this particular neighborhood is affluent, with the majority of the residents earning more than $100,000.

We can see from this map that the most populous groups in this specific area are Caucasians, who are definitely not struggling financially. Furthermore, they have access to a wide variety of food stores as seen below:

There's low obesity and low prevalence in diabetes in NoHo highlighting the fact that they have access to healthier foods leading to a diet that's balanced well.

These are not all of the food stores accessible, but there are a substantial number of high-quality quality food stores in this small region of the neighborhood. In comparison to our area, where excellent quality food stores were few and far between, there seemed to be one on almost every block. It is fair to assume that the rich, Caucasian residents of this specific Manhattan area have greater access to high-quality foods. Residents in the Bronx, on the other hand, must go to great distances and struggle to obtain necessary groceries.

How can the problems be resolved now that they have been identified along with their causes?

• Increasing the Number of Grocery Stores in these Communities - Needless to say, there are more unhealthy food stores that are promoted to these minority/lower-income areas, thus, there should be an effort amongst individuals to establish more grocery stores that sell fresh produce.

• Introduce Federal Food Assistance Programs - The government makes trillions of dollars in tax revenue, thus it should be easy for them to allocate some of that money into ensuring that lower-income/minority residents have access to high quality food.

• Increase Awareness of this Issue - It seems as though in this day and age, many people, particularly the youth, are unaware of this issue that is plaguing countries across the globe. Any of you people can make a difference by spreading awareness to your friends, families, peers, in hopes that light will be shed on this issue and more people are willing to contribute to the cause.

If these efforts are successful, it may result in additional food stores to meet the needs of an overburdened lower-class populace. As an example, consider the following scenario:

To summarize, food deserts are a serious and largely unknown public health issue that demands greater attention. Food deserts have a negative influence on inhabitants' health. The fact that there are several answers indicates that this problem can be solved very easily. Food deserts should not exist in regions where there are already so many other problems. Unfortunately, the Bronx in its current state is a food desert, but it does not have to necessarily stay that way.

1. C
2. B
3. D
4. A
5. A