food insecurity literature review __ eva wieting
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1100
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Health Science
Date
Dec 6, 2023
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HSSJ 1100
Eva Wieting
Instructor: Professor Hackett
10/17/23
Food Accessibility in the Capital City
Food insecurity is a prevalent issue in the capital of the United States and continues to be
an unsolved crisis. Without equal access to food across the city, certain communities are lacking
proper resources to take care of themselves and meet their inherent human right to quality food.
It is necessary to assess all factors that contribute to food access issues as well as different
perspectives on authorship surrounding the topic. Looking for gaps in research and what needs
more work and improvement is a necessary step to take in order to make educated decisions and
improvements that will directly benefit communities. This literature review will assess various
works detailing food insecurity across Washington DC and contribute to the ongoing academic
literature surrounding the promotion of equal access to food across the city.
The lack of food sources within the city of DC is not a new issue. A study on grocery
stores in urban cities conducted by Cotterill & Franklin (1995) found that in Washington DC, the
highest income group in the city had twice the amount of accessible grocery stores than the
lowest income group in the city. The average store per capita for high-income areas versus
low-income areas was similar, with fewer store locations in low-income communities (Cotterill
& Franklin, 1995). The same results were found when looking at square feet per capita in regard
to grocery store accessibility (Cotterill & Franklin, 1995). This study clearly reveals that DC has
a long history of food access issues, which are particularly exacerbated by income as well as
race.
There is a wide variety of academic discourse that is more current surrounding the topic
of food access in DC as well. Research on community connection to food has been conducted
across the city of Washington DC. Chapter three of the book
Black Food Geographies
details
this connection and focuses on how the lack of quality food has a cultural and social impact on
individuals across the city (Reese & Cooper, 2019). It explains how changes in the food
landscape have had consequences for the socio-cultural fabric of the city (Reese & Cooper,
2019). The chapter also presents the idea of imaginaries, which are utilized to “capture how
discourses, stories, media, and images circulate to create representations of people and places”
(Reese & Cooper, 2019). This idea is brought up in the text to exemplify the strong connection
between community, history, and food access in the city of Washington DC (Reese & Cooper,
2019). The piece helps explain the current landscape of food access through the connection of
present food insecurity in DC as well as a historical view of accessibility throughout the past few
decades (Reese & Cooper, 2019). It highlights how anti-blackness in D.C. shaped neighborhoods
and, in turn, access to quality food across the city.
Terms utilized to describe food insecurity in the city have been a controversial topic. An
article commenting on the book
Black Food Geographies
as a whole introduces the term “food
apartheid” (Dickinson, 2019). This term is believed to better describe the complex issues that
lower-income communities experience when facing food insecurity (Dickinson, 2019). While
“food desert” creates a barren and empty image, “food apartheid” better represents the
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discrimination, oppression, and struggle that black communities in DC have faced in regard to
food access (Dickinson, 2019). It explains that the traditional view of spatial analysis regarding
food accessibility is not complete and that a food desert does not include the historical pattern of
discrimination in the city of DC (Dickinson, 2019). It challenges this traditional view by
presenting a social, historical, and cultural analysis of African-American communities in the
capital city and their connection to the uneven urban development creating a food apartheid
system (Dickinson, 2019).
Further research on food access and insecurity focused on the struggles that individuals
faced during the COVID-19 pandemic with food access in DC. A study conducted by Hawkins et
al. (2022) describes the challenges that arose from not living in healthy food priority areas. The
main topics discussed by D.C. community members were the links between high-poverty areas
and limited access to grocery stores, particularly in low-income wards like 7 and 8 (Hawkins et
al., 2022). However, community-driven initiatives during the pandemic helped to increase
options in corner stores across the city to access healthier options (Hawkins et al., 2022). It also
made sure to include information about the importance of streamlining eligibility information for
community members who may be facing insecurity and how to better spread the word about
programs and initiatives taking place in the city (Hawkins et al., 2022).
Research has also been done about specific initiatives taken in DC. An article written by
Snelling et al (2020) presents a DC initiative called “5-for-5” that was implemented in corner
stores across the city with the goal of increasing fresh produce availability to SNAP
(Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) participants in vulnerable neighborhoods. It
emphasizes the importance of community engagement when it comes to food and also explains
that there are many layers to the initiative (Snelling et al., 2020). The program was successful in
increasing the purchasing of fresh produce among the more vulnerable urban populations in DC.
While all of these academic contributions to the literature surrounding food insecurity are
valuable, they present some gaps in what has been researched and discovered. Chapter three
from
Black Food Geographies
does not discuss ways in which the city could improve food
access or how to emphasize and make known the cultural connection that food has to
communities so that legislation respects that important thread. The article that adds to the work
of Reese & Cooper (2019) leaves out any critiques of the narrative presented in the book. It also
lacks statistical data to prove the claims regarding food access in communities across
Washington. The study on food accessibility in the city during the covid 19 pandemic by
Hawkins et al. (2022) is extensive but could be leaving out an exploration of the impact of
community-driven initiatives during the pandemic that may be successful for continued use and
practice in DC. Further, research conducted by Snelling et al. (2020) does not go into depth about
the long-term impact of food assistance initiatives like 5-for-5 and does not provide accurate data
on actual consumption of fresh produce, only purchases. This limitation prompts the question of
how effective these initiatives actually are.
With these points in mind, there are many steps that the city could take to improve the
pressing issue of food insecurity. Through past and current literature, it is clear that there are
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changes that need to be made to improve healthy food accessibility across the city. A necessary
first step would be to invest in the development of more healthy grocery stores or corner store
options in low-income wards where insecurity surrounding food is most prevalent. When
addressing possible initiatives to take, it is important to keep in mind the work of Reese &
Cooper (2019). Being culturally aware and creating widely accessible options for people who
have historically faced discrimination and the phenomena of a “food apartheid” is a necessity
(Dickinson, 2019). Service providers involved in food access could also benefit from training on
the extensive cultural connection that many underserved and diverse communities have with
food and how to best assist them in getting the options that represent them best.
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Wieting - 4
References
Cotterill, R., Franklin, A. (1995-04). The Urban Grocery Store Gap.
Food Marketing Policy
Issue Paper.
N0. 8, (pp. 15-60). Food Marketing Policy Center, University of
Connecticut. DOI:
10.22004/ag.econ.161547.
Dickinson, M., (2019). Black agency and food access: leaving the food desert narrative behind,
City, 23:4-5, 690-693, DOI:
10.1080/13604813.2019.1682873
Hawkins, M., Clermont, M., Wells, D., Alston, M., McClave, R., & Snelling, A. (2022). Food
Security Challenges and Resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Corner Store
Communities in Washington, D.C. Nutrients, 14 (15), 3028. DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14153028
Reese, A. M., & Cooper, D. (2019). What Is Our Culture?: I Don’t Even Know Nostalgia and
Memory in Evaluations of Food Access. In Black Food Geographies: Race,
Self-Reliance, and Food Access in Washington, D.C. (pp. 69–90). University of North
Carolina Press.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469651521_reese.8
Snelling A.M., Yamamoto J.J., Belazis L.B., Seltzer G.R., McClave R.L., and Watts E. (2020).
Incentivizing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program purchases with fresh produce
in corner stores to reduce food inequity in underserved areas of Washington DC, Health
Equity 4:1, 386–393, DOI:
http://doi.org/10.1089/heq.2020.0028