Food Access
Everyone deserves access to healthy and affordable foods. Food access refers to a person’s ability to obtain healthy foods, shaped by availability and affordability. Food access plays an integral role in overall food security status, and is an important public health issue, as approximately 1 in 9 people in the United States were food insecure in 2018.
Various factors contribute to disparities in food access. These factors include spatial proximity to healthy food retailers, transportation, and food prices. Food access typically manifests in communities with poor economic indicators, including higher rates of unemployment, poverty, and lower homeownership, as well as in rural communities where transportation and proximity to healthy food is a challenge.
Various programs and policy initiatives can help address food access. For example, community-level responses to food access challenges can include farmers markets, community gardens, CSAs, food rescue agencies, school-based programs, and bringing healthy food retailers to underserved areas to help strengthen local food systems. Initiatives to strengthen federal nutrition programs such as SNAP, WIC, SNAP-Ed, and SNAP incentive programs can also help address food access through large-scale policy.
Resources & Tools
The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment
Resource - Website/webpage
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Bright Spot: Corner Store Initiative (Baltimore Health Stores)
Resource - Model Policy
Brought to you by 100MHL
The Role of Business in Supporting Basic Needs for Health and Safety: Healthy Food
Resource - Policy Brief
Brought to you by WIN Network
Published on 02/25/2021
Local Laws and Policies That Promote Access To Healthy Food: A Food System Crosswalk
Resource
Brought to you by Healthy Food Policy Project
Why Place Matters: Building a Movement for Healthy Communities
Resource - Report
Brought to you by PolicyLink
Farm to Preschool: The State of the Research Literature and a Snapshot of National Practice
Resource - Journal Article
Published on 10/19/2016
The Grocery Gap: Who Has Access to Healthy Food and Why It Matters
Resource - Report
Brought to you by The Food Trust
Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food-Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences: Report to Congress
Resource - Report
Published on 06/01/2009
2023 Farm Bill: Advancing Public Health at the Intersection of Food, Environment, and Economic Policy
Story
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Original
Brought to you by Community Commons
Indigenous Food Sovereignty Movements Are Taking Back Ancestral Land
Story - Written
Brought to you by Civil Eats
Data Viz: Updates to SNAP and Farmers Market Data
Story
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Original
Brought to you by Community Commons
Published on 01/18/2018
Growth of Organic Farming
Story
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Original
Brought to you by Community Commons
Published on 12/29/2016
Uncommon Nonprofit Embraces Urban Agriculture to Break Cycle of Poverty
Story - Written
Brought to you by Seedstock
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