Everyone needs to eat, right? In a perfect world, access to affordable, healthy food would be a basic human right. Unfortunately, across America, food security depends on your zip code. Not all of us live in leafy suburbs close to big-box retailers and grocery stores. Some of us live in food deserts.

How far are you willing to travel for groceries? The average U.S. household is nearly four miles away from their preferred grocery store, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The USDA defines low access census tracts as areas on a map where at least one-third of households are more than one mile away from the nearest grocery store in urban areas or more than 10 miles away in rural areas. 

If you live in a low-access urban area and depend on public transportation for grocery store runs, you may end up shopping from corner stores, bodegas, and fast food chains instead. Even if you have a vehicle, families in low-access rural areas still find themselves buying groceries from dollar stores and gas stations where prices are high and selection is limited. That is the reality of living in a food desert. People’s food choices are severely limited by their immediate options and by what they can afford. For families in food deserts, the choice is often between eating overpriced, unhealthy options or not eating at all. This leads to worse health outcomes for communities that are already facing other socioeconomic stressors. The irony is this: Food deserts are completely preventable and shouldn’t exist in the first place.

Why Do Food Deserts Exist?

Racism.

Racism is the root of many problems in the United States, and food deserts are no exception. Food deserts can, at least partially, be traced back to redlining, discriminatory housing practices that maintained the color line by restricting certain races and ethnicities to specific locations on a map. Racial covenants and homeowners associations were created to keep People of Color out of white neighborhoods. Homebuyers deemed undesirable were systematically denied mortgages, insurance loans, and other financial services. Their homes were also appraised at lower values, and their neighborhoods received fewer resources and less maintenance from city governments. Eventually, redlined communities began to suffer from economic blight—if not outright demolished to make way for stadiums, highways, plants and other projects. 

This disproportionately affected African Americans and other People of Color, denying them the same wealth-building opportunities granted to whites. This is why food deserts are especially common in low-income, Black, and Brown neighborhoods. If you scan headlines today, you’ll read stories about supermarket chains and big box stores pulling out of low income neighborhoods of color. What’s missing from the narrative are chains that never built in Black and Brown neighborhoods in the first place. This is not a new phenomenon. Most grocery stores have little incentive to invest in areas with crumbling infrastructure marked by decades of government neglect. Then and now, that leaves few choices for residents—especially for those without vehicles—to be able to access affordable, healthy food options. 

Is It Really a “Desert”?

What comes to mind when you think of the term “desert”? Deserts are naturally occurring phenomena, but food deserts are man-made. Food deserts are not natural occurrences; they exist because systemic problems allow them to flourish.

As food deserts are not naturally occurring, some feel that the term “Food Apartheid” better conveys the systemic nature of it. Karen Washington, a food justice advocate, organizer, and author, first coined the term to draw attention to the root causes of food inequity. Food deserts or apartheids only exist because intentional actions created them. In a way, they are functioning exactly as designed, to disenfranchise people whom this country has deemed unworthy. The term “food apartheid” also reinforces the fact that food insecurity is entrenched in the historical, political, social, and economic systems that the United States is built on. It’s important to understand the root causes of the problem before attempting to fix it. 

How Do Food Deserts Affect Communities?

Healthy food options are out of reach for families in food deserts, which means entire communities suffer. Those living in food deserts may also struggle to find culturally appropriate foods, avoid food allergies, or observe kosher or halal. That means they may struggle to find meals.

Grocery shopping is much more expensive in food deserts with a much smaller selection. Urban residents often pay more for convenience items than those in suburban areas buying the same items. Additionally, healthier foods like fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, and dairy tend to be more expensive, and this disparity is even more apparent in food deserts. The higher cost of healthy foods often prices lower-income people out.

Food deserts can also lead to long-term health issues. Not having access to healthy foods contributes to higher rates of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. This shortens life spans and creates even more strain on people who are already struggling under capitalism.

What if I Live in a Food Desert?

If you live in a food desert, one way to help is by talking more openly about ways to bring about change. 

Discussing different options, like growing your own food or working with local retailers to sell a wider variety of foods, is a good place to start. 

Food deserts are the result of longstanding governmental neglect of Black and Brown neighborhoods. Policymakers starved our communities of resources, assuming we had no power to push back or speak up. Well, they were wrong. Food deserts are a political issue that municipal and state governments must address. While community gardens are a great start, grassroots political activism is also necessary.

Long-lasting change will require intentional policies to right the wrongs of the past.

Resources

Living in a food desert can feel like fighting an uphill battle, and trying to feed a family in these conditions can feel impossible. But some things can be done to ensure that people can still find affordable food options, even in less-than-ideal conditions. It is important to note that the burden is on policymakers to eliminate food deserts, not the people surviving in them. But because change is slow, and people still need to eat in the interim, here are a few tips for surviving in a food desert:

The Emergency Food Assistance Program helps provides emergency food assistance at no cost: https://www.fns.usda.gov/tefap/emergency-food-assistance-program 

Feeding America is the largest nonprofit organization working to end hunger in the United States. It has a ton of resources to connect people with local food banks, pantries, and organizations to help alleviate hunger. It also advocates for longer-term solutions to hunger and food deserts: https://www.feedingamerica.org/need-help-find-food

When strapped for transportation, a meal delivery service may be a good option to consider so that the meals come to you. Dinnerly is one of the more affordable options, with prices as low as five dollars per serving. https://dinnerly.com/how

Content creators are also talking about food deserts as well. On TikTok, Dollar Tree Dinners uses Dollar Tree ingredients to whip up affordable meals for an audience of 1.3 million. She also posts YouTube videos with titles like “12 Meals for Just $10: Dollar Tree Emergency Grocery Budget Meal Prep” and “4 Easy One Pan Skillet Dollar Tree Dinners” which each racked up nearly half-a-million views.

Overall, food deserts need intentional policy intervention to address the deliberate nature and history of the problem. Now that we understand the situation a little better, we can continue to work towards eliminating food apartheid.

Works Cited

Dinnerly. “This Is How Our Meal Delivery Service Works.” Dinnerly,

Dollar Tree Dinners. “Budget Meals | Dollar Tree Dinners

Feeding America. “Find Free Food and Groceries.” Feeding America

Feeding America. “Find Your Local Food Bank.” Feeding America,

Food Empowerment Project. “Food Deserts*.” Food Empowerment Project