Improving Access to Food in Low-Income Communities
Healthy foods and nutrients are out of range for most people in low-income communities in the United States. If these people want access to healthy foods, they are usually limited to two choices: traveling long distances for the products and/or paying high prices for mediocre products, once they have access to them. Due to these unideal conditions, these low-income communities are at risk for obesity, diabetes, and other preventable food and health challenges, and the biggest issue with this scenario is that these communities are vastly contributing to the increase in the country’s population growth. This leaves the unanswered question of where our country will be in the future if access to …show more content…
And, over the past three years, approximately one-hundred seventy studies have been published, all examining different factors that contribute to healthy food access and how these factors relate to overall individual and economic health.
There have been more concerns with obesity worsening in these populations in America, and the only solution seems to be creating easier access to healthy foods, that are also affordable, and this is slowly becoming an issue that our policymakers are focusing on more.
Policymakers should use different tools to attract people towards healthy food options and retail. For example, they could use land use planning and zoning to attract grocery stores and supermarkets, as well as the idea of economic development. Also, neighborhoods can provide retailers with publicly owned land at low or even no cost, which helps them avoid apparent barriers. On an individual level, they could use tax credit or other incentives. The federal New Markets Tax Credit has used more than four million dollars to support larger retail projects for healthy food
Healthy foods and nutrients are out of range for most people in low-income communities in the United States. If these people want access to healthy foods, they are usually limited to two choices: traveling long distances for the products and/or paying high prices for mediocre products, once they have access to them. Due to these unideal conditions, these low-income communities are at risk for obesity, diabetes, and other preventable food and health challenges, and the biggest issue with this scenario is that these communities are vastly contributing to the increase in the country’s population growth. This leaves the unanswered question of where our country will be in the future if access to …show more content…
And, over the past three years, approximately one-hundred seventy studies have been published, all examining different factors that contribute to healthy food access and how these factors relate to overall individual and economic health.
There have been more concerns with obesity worsening in these populations in America, and the only solution seems to be creating easier access to healthy foods, that are also affordable, and this is slowly becoming an issue that our policymakers are focusing on more.
Policymakers should use different tools to attract people towards healthy food options and retail. For example, they could use land use planning and zoning to attract grocery stores and supermarkets, as well as the idea of economic development. Also, neighborhoods can provide retailers with publicly owned land at low or even no cost, which helps them avoid apparent barriers. On an individual level, they could use tax credit or other incentives. The federal New Markets Tax Credit has used more than four million dollars to support larger retail projects for healthy food