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Urban food deserts are low-income communities located more than one mile from a vendor
that supplies affordable, healthy food options. According to the USDA, 11.5 million
Americans nationwide live in food desert areas. Before policymakers can effectively
address food deserts, however, the parameters of food deserts need to be more clearly
defined. This research challenges the two primary criteria currently used by USDA
to define food deserts, distance from a grocery store and community socio-economic
status, and presents new characteristics, which are vital to a redefinition. Additionally,
it highlights the many barriers to accessing fruits and vegetables in low-income communities,
and how these barriers can be used to more comprehensively define food deserts within
the context of Durham, North Carolina. This study conducted eight focus groups in
low-income communities in Durham and Chapel Hill, North Carolina to determine barriers
to accessing fruits and vegetables. Additionally, this study used geospatial (GIS)
analysis to locate food deserts in Durham, using the USDA’s criteria. The GIS map
in this study used finer scale census block data to locate food deserts. Twenty-four
major barriers to accessing fruits and vegetables emerged from the data. These barriers
were found through researcher memos and qualitative coding in NVivo, a qualitative
analysis software. From these twenty-four barriers, fourteen criteria were created
to redefine food deserts. Each criterion was chosen based on how easily a local policymaker
could access the data associated with the criterion. GIS results found that food
deserts, when mapped with finer scale census block level data, more narrowly located
food desert communities in Durham. The fourteen criteria used to define food deserts
in this study, coupled with the GIS map produced from the study, could help Durham
policymakers more accurately identify food deserts and help them devise more comprehensive
policy solutions to eradicate them.
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