New Suburban Foodscapes
RE-IMAGINING SUBURBAN FOOD ENVIRONMENTS FOR BETTER HEALTH OUTCOMES Jessica Steiner
Table of Contents
0 1 Introduction Pages 4-7
02 Suburbia,
Supermarkets, and Health: A Brief History Pages 8-19
03 Problems in Suburbia Pages 20-31
04 New Suburban Food Environments Pages 32-37
05 Proposal Pages 38-43
01 Introduction
The American suburb and the American supermarket, both sprawling complexes in the fabric of the American landscape, and both essential aspects of the American dream1. Both entities were once a symbol of health and prosperity, representing “the good life”. The pristine suburbs with rows upon rows of perfect houses, and the sparkling supermarket containing abundances of fresh food were both key players in improving the overall health and quality of life for the American people. The suburbs solved issues of overcrowding, while the supermarket helped solve issues of sanitation present in the cities; these solutions contributed to better health outcomes and life expectancies. This healthy lifestyle was the original intention of the suburbs and supermarket. However, as the suburbs and the supermarket grew and grew their image of health and abundance grew sour. With high obesity rates, diet related diseases, and mental health issues on the rise2,3, the way we live is again being placed under scrutiny. Furthermore, these negative health outcomes are highest in the suburbs, outranking both rural and urban areas, indicating that the suburb’s original goal to create a place where one could live a healthy life is taking a turn for the worse.
4.
1.Greteman, “The Pursuit of Happiness.”. 2. CDC, “Obesity Is a Common, Serious, and Costly Disease.”
3. Commissioner, “Improving Nutrition to Turn the Tide on Diet-Related Chronic Disease.”
5.
The original intention of the suburbs was to create a healthy environment for suburbanites to live in. The intended vision separated living and amenities significantly.
Intended Suburbs
Suburbs today are undergoing a health crisis. This is partly due to the separated nature of the suburbs.
Suburbs Today
To heal the suburbs the suburbs must be reconnected. Food is one way to re-connect the suburbs .
Healed Suburbs
Health in the Suburbs
6.
But still, more people move to the suburbs every year despite the hidden health hazards they pose. To help avoid a flat out epidemic of suburban related diseases the way the suburbs exist today must be re-envisioned to capture what people love most about them while improving their health outcome. There is much to be done to try and turn this unsavory consequence of suburban life around as there are many aspects that have led to these negative health outcomes. One avenue often overlooked by designers is how food impacts the built environment and consequently people’s health. However, food should be reconsidered as a design tool as it is one of the biggest factors shaping our built environment affecting both the health of people and the planet. This discussion outlines how food can be used to re-envision suburban food environments to improve suburban design and better health outcomes of suburban residents. In particular, the supermarket will be analyzed because it is one of the most prominent food environments in suburbia. Additionally, food environments that can supplement the supermarket will also be examined, but in less detail. The re-envisioned supermarket will help to re-activate suburban dead space, serve as a community hub, and change the way suburbanites interact with food. These components will help make the supermarket a catalyst to improve suburban health both in terms of the built environment and its inhabitants.
7.
02 Suburbia,
Supermarkets, and Health: A Brief History Since the beginning of humanity our lives have revolved around food: where to get it, how to grow it, and how to cook it. And for as long as there has been agriculture there has been a need to store food, share food, and sell food. For centuries, this surplus of food allowed us to provide food to people other than ourselves, giving us the ability to form larger and larger communities, steeped in food tradition and culture. That is until these communities became too large and overcrowded. This overcrowding resulted in a city that was unsafe and unsanitary. Not a favorable scene for people or food to reside in. Because of this, views of how and where people lived shifted; new public health movements insisted that people must leave the dense urban environment to live a healthy life4. And in order for people to live in the suburbs, food needed to follow. Unsurprisingly, food selling was also put underneath the health microscope in the early 1900s. What was discovered were food handling and distribution processes that were
8.
4. Verderber, Sprawling Cities and Our Endangered Public Health.
9.
5. Sinclair, The Jungle. 6. Ruhlman, Grocery. 7. “Unhealthiest Country in the World 2023.”
making people sick.5 Big changes to how food was sold needed to occur. Although ultimately it was not public health that prompted the chain grocery store (predecessors of the supermarket) to create standardized food selling and distribution, cleanliness and sanitation naturally came with standardized food products. The cheap prices the new chain groceries could offer attracted consumers to them, but the guarantee of clean and fresh food kept people there.6 And so, the newly health-conscious suburbia had found its ideal way to feed the suburbanites, a pristine and hygienic grocery store. But alas, however well-intentioned the original push for suburbia was, it has somehow led us right back to what drove us to suburbia in the first place, into a public health crisis. In the suburbia we know today we live in isolated communities, bringing food back from an isolated supermarket to isolated families, often eating completely alone, void of any connections food previously brought to the land and the community. This isolation and detachment from each other and our food has been linked to a myriad of different diseases, disorders and conditions, so much so that in 2023 the United States is considered the unhealthiest country in the world7. The history of the suburbs, the supermarket, and their respective relationship with public health is rather complex, but these complexities can begin to be teased apart when looking at them through the lens of the built environment. Indeed, patterns of spatial forms begin to emerge giving us insight into what public health looked like at the time. This section begins to explain those patterns and the overlap that can be found in the development of the suburbs, the supermarket, and public health.
Patterns in Suburbia & Public Health
10.
For the purposes of this discussion, the history of suburbia in its entirety will not be unveiled, but rather it will be analyzed from the perspective of public health ideas and principles. Suburbia in the earliest sense was considered the space outside the “walking city”. For a long
time, the spaces outside of the city were considered undesirable.8 The city provided safety and protection for those who resided inside it, so anything existing on the periphery was considered more of a risk. As cities grew and the industrial revolution took hold, life in cities became increasingly precarious. Disease and poor living conditions drove people away from cities, making the suburbs an attractive choice.9 Public reforms around this time especially promoted people to move out of the city and into the surrounding country. For a while the suburbs remained the healthy choice, or at least they appeared to be healthy. The suburbs provided ample space, access to light, air, and green space, all good things in and of themselves. But with the addition of the automobile, the healthy suburban image began to deteriorate. The automobile made it possible for more people to move to the suburbs resulting in a suburban boom. Again, in the realm of health, this was thought of as a good thing. People were moving away from the cities that were making them sick. But no one could predict how detrimental the effects of sprawl would be to our health in the long run. Much like the cities, the suburbs became too large, but instead of a density problem causing public health issues we are faced with the opposite: A low density issue of sprawl affecting the health of our country.10
a.)
b.)
8. Jackson and Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier. 9. Verderber, Sprawling Cities and Our Endangered Public Health.
10. Miller, “Health Impacts of Suburban Development Patterns.”
c.)
A simplified pattern of suburban and city growth is shown: a.) Cities are seen as desirable places to live. b.) Cities grow larger. c.) Large cities become undesirable and people begin to move from the suburbs. d.) The suburbs grow to unsustainable sizes d.)
Cities Suburbs Desirable Living
11.
Patterns in Food Retail Like the evolution of suburbs, the history and evolution of selling food and the architecture that houses food retail is complex, spanning both oceans and time, the overall formula for how we got from an open-air public market to supermarket is moreor-less the same across civilizations.
3.
Independent food sellers then began to group together congregating along city streets, and large enough public spaces.
1. Generally speaking, food was first sold in open air stalls along trade routes or roads
2.
Specific architecture was built for these block markets, generally they took the form of a large hall for independent sellers to set up their stalls in11 .
Independent stalls were then covered with simple means of protection such as tents.
These stall assemblies were also covered with simple means of protection. The street market became undesirable in most places because it became too crowded and congested with traffic, so it was moved to the block.
4.
12.
6. Private market halls began to emerge, fracturing the centrality of the public market and furthermore, smaller independent stores such as butchers, bakers and grocers began to emerge.
7.
These independent stores once again began to group together forming chains of stores, these chains became larger and larger, and combination stores, or supermarkets emerged.
8.
5.
Supermarkets grew larger and larger
Supermarkets once again split into smaller (though still large) more specific stores to cater more specifically to the consumer.12
9.
13.
Grocery Size and Distribution
14.
From this brief history a general pattern emerges food is sold independently, then it is grouped together for convenience, it grows into a large selling complex, then it is fractured apart again and sold independently by product or category, once again food selling is grouped together for convenience, the market grows once more until it becomes too large, and then again it is broken into more specific stores. Today we are at the point where we have multiple medium to large stores selling targeted products to specific types of customers.
11. Mayo, “The American Public Market.”of Suburban Development Patterns.” 12. Steel, Carolyn, Hungry City How Food Shapes Our Lives.
15.
Living Location vs Food Retail Location Looking at these two entities together, the suburbs and food retail, we can begin to map out the relationship between food location and living location throughout history. When food selling was independent it existed outside the city with the early suburbs, or sporadically throughout the city, people had to walk or ride a horse sizable distances to collect food from retailers. As food surpluses grew the stalls were grouped together forming a singular market, they were placed in a central desirable location, inside the city. With more people living in the city, a larger percentage of people had access to food from their homes. The permanent architectural market took up too much space in the center of town/the high street, so it was moved to the block/outside the center where it had more space to grow. The location, although not always directly central, was still in a place of importance that people could get to easily. The permanent markets became too large and smaller private markets and shops began to fracture off of them meaning people had to go to multiple places to get their food again, still these places were relatively close to where people were living. Then for convenience all of the independent stores were brought together in a supermarket, once again we have the one stop shop but this time the shop is moved outside of the urban center away from where people are living and working. The supermarket grows and grows until it fractures again and more specific stores emerge, meaning one is shopping at multiple stores again to pick up what they need. These stores still sit on the periphery rather than in places that are close to where people live.13,14
16.
13. Stanton, “A Brief History of Food Retail.” 14. Tangires, “Feeding the Cities.”.
Cities are considered desirable. Food retail is independent and distributed primarily outside the city.
Cities are considered desirable. Food retail remains independent but is clustered and moves inside the city.
Cities are considered desirable. Independent clustered food retail grows and moves to the city center.
Cities are considered desirable. Food retail is clustered into one building and moved away from the city center.
Cities are considered desirable. Food retail is fractured into large clustered buildings and independent shops.
Suburbs are considered desirable. Chain clustered food retail moves out of the city into the suburbs.
Suburbs are considered desirable. Chain clustered food retail continues to move outside of the city and expands into larger stores.
Suburbs are considered desirable. Chain clustered food retail stays in the suburbs but is more widely distributed and categorized to respond to consumer demand.
Key: City Suburb Food Retail Desired Living
17.
Modern Food Retail
Today we have several types of food retail environments in the suburbs. The following is a brief glossary of terms defining each food retail environment:
18.
Convenience Stores:
These are the closest thing we have to a corner market in the suburbs. Often located in Gas stations convenience stores sell a limited range of convenience food. They are often small and are intended to serve shoppers who only need a few items.15
Variety Stores:
Stores that sell a variety of items, typically including a small rage of groceries, apparel, toys, decor, hardware and furniture at a low price. Dollar Stores fall into this category.16
Grocery Stores:
When we think of grocery stores today most people are really thinking of what is classically known as a supermarket. The term grocery store refers to a store that sells only dry goods, no meat or fresh produce. So, when you talk about your local grocery you are more than likely thinking about a supermarket.17
Supermarkets:
Originally called combination stores, supermarkets are establishments that sell dry goods, meat, and fresh produce all under one roof.18
Hypermarkets:
Hypermarkets are essentially a combination of a supermarket and a department store. They sell more than just food and a few essential household items. Hypermarkets can carry large quantities of food, clothing, electronics, furniture and more, making them the true one-stop-shop.19
Warehouse Stores:
Stores that offer products in bulk at a discounted rate. Warehouse stores do not limit their selling to only food and offer a variety of different products similar to hypermarkets.
15. “Difference Between a Grocery Store and Convenience Store.” 16. “Variety Store | Universal Marketing Dictionary.”
17. Ruhlman, Grocery. 18. Ruhlman. 19. “Difference between Supermarket and Hypermarket.”
19.
03 Problems in Suburbia For many Americans the suburbs hold a certain appeal. Prized for their quiet nature and privacy, the suburbs are fit for those looking for a more reserved and independent lifestyle. However, it is important to realize the health hazards hidden in this idolized American suburban landscape. The independent way of suburban living in and of itself does not necessarily lend itself to unfavorable health consequences, but the way we have decided to develop our suburbs is certainly not helping us lead healthy lives. This is because rather than designing the suburbs for ourselves, we have designed our suburbs for our cars.20 This focus on the car has resulted in a divided suburban landscape. Wide streets, highways and parking lots run through suburbia creating divisions that make it difficult to achieve the elements that make up good neighborhoods.
20.
20. Verderber, Sprawling Cities and Our Endangered Public Health.
21.
A World Designed for the Car With so much space devoted to the car there is little room left over for public space. Accessibility to amenities is only granted to those who have access to or the ability to drive a car. In this car dominated world walkability is wholly out of the question and public transportation is often nonexistent. This lack of walkability and public transportation is on account of greater distances that can exist between all our major daily destinations, like work, home, and the supermarket. Because everyone is expected to have their own personal car to travel these distances, it makes it nearly impossible to reach these daily frequented locations in a reasonable amount of time by foot or bike. Additionally, this distancing of home, work, and amenities makes it impossible to live in this landscape without a personal car, so public transportation falls to the wayside. Furthermore, because one can easily hop in their car to get from place to place, there is little demand for mixed use zoning. Therefore, single use zoning reigns supreme in the suburbs. Lastly the need for parking means that it becomes difficult for affordable housing to become available. This is due to the parking minimums necessary for every housing unit built. This parking requirement makes the price of the unit more expensive and it becomes difficult to make housing affordable.21 All these aspects make up a suburbia that is perfectly suited to the car but poorly designed for our own health and safety. 21. Grabar, Paved Paradise How Parking Explains The World.
22.
But why is designing for the car rather than the person so detrimental to our own health? The answer lies in more avenues than one. The first reason is because suburbs designed for the car facilitates a sedentary life. As mentioned previously the suburbs are rarely walkable and are zoned for distant single uses amenities. This increase in the time spent in the car gives rise to less physical activity on average, resulting in sedentary lifestyles. Sedentary lifestyles have been linked to a myriad of health risks including heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cer-
tain types of cancer, stress, anxiety and depression.22 Physical activity is shown to reduce these health risks and in a study done by Adela Hruby results showed that increasing the density of either population, intersections or facilities, was associated with a greater chance of meeting the physical activity recommendations by walking.23 Additionally, several studies show that car infested suburbia leads to negative mental health consequences. “Long daily commutes can result in stress that affects well-being and social relationships. Civic engagement can suffer as those with long commutes find themselves with less time to spend with family and friends, or to engage in community activities. This can contribute to a decline in a community’s social capital.”24 Next cars physical dominance also poses a problem to our health. With facilities and amenities so spread-out people are on the road more frequently. This results in more air pollution and an increased chance of car accident death. Air pollution has been linked to increases in certain types of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory disease25 ,while car accidents are a leading cause of non-natural death in the United States.26 Lastly cars result in less diverse suburb which is poor for community health. As mentioned previously, the need for parking minimums results in a suburb unable to support a diverse range of housing necessary to support a wide range of incomes. This is one of the factors contributing to segregated neighborhoods which have been shown to suffer higher health consequences due to environmental, social, and psychological stressors. Not only is this costly for individuals but it is also costly for the community. This is because racial and class health disparities are “associated with substantial annual economic losses nationally, including and estimated $35 billion in excess health care expenditures, $10 billion in illness-related lost productivity, and nearly $200 billion in premature deaths.”27 These health problems prompted by poor suburban development must be addressed in order to build a healthier future suburbia.
22. Votel, “Health Risks of a Sedentary Lifestyle and How to Make Changes.” 23. Hruby et al., “Determinants and Consequences of Obesity.”
24. Miller, “Health Impacts of Suburban Development Patterns.”
25. “Air Pollution and Your Health.” 26. CDC, “Road Traffic Injuries and Deaths—A Global Problem.” 27. Content, “Benefits for All.”
23.
Loss of Community and Place This devotion to the car has made it hard for a sense of place and community to be built in the suburbs. So many divisions made by the car, both physically and socially, have made it difficult for suburban inhabitants to make connections with the land and the people. Both essential connections to make for better life outcomes. We have built up our suburbs with houses, roads, and stores and done little to connect them with place-based spaces like public spaces, schools, and main street shops. According to Jason Diamond in his book The Sprawl: Reconsidering the Weird American Suburbs “Nothing [in the suburbs] is complete: we’ve built the suburbs out, and now it’s time to grow them from within. It’s time to look at the past to see what we’ve done wrong, apply it to the present, and learn for tomorrow. Because whether we like it or not, the future is still in suburbia. We just need to reclaim it.”28 Community is critical to our overall wellbeing because people are naturally social beings. Strong communities provide people with a sense of belonging and purpose. This helps to combat loneliness and improves mental health.29 There is a large sense of community lacking because “With suburban sprawl, we have built cities for isolation. In addition to missing physical connections, institutions and norms that create overlapping social connections in neighborhoods were also lost in the 20th Century.”30
24.
28. Diamond, The Sprawl: Reconsidering the Weird American Suburbs. 29. “The Importance of Community and Mental Health.” 30. Diamond.
Figure a.
Figure b.
Figure c.
Communal Spaces and Living Development Figure a. shows organic town growth. Red and blue squares represent spaces with strong community aspects, such as churches, public outdoor space, and food markets. In figure b. the city takes the form of a grid. Communal places are still present in this scheme representing a town with a strong high street. Figure c. shows a typical suburban development. Communal spaces are missing from as suburbs often lack useful community spaces with real sense of place.
25.
The Supermarket and Public Health Another question is what is the supermarket’s role in the suburban health crisis? It is first important to remember that the supermarket is an element of suburbia. This means the supermarket is often zoned for single use and is often quite distant from other facilities. So, health problems associated with car usage apply to the supermarket since it encourages the use of the car to get there. Additionally in today’s makeup of supermarkets it is often quite common for people to shop at multiple supermarkets to get what they need. This further perpetuates the use of the car as one drives from one supermarket to the next to pick up their required groceries.
26.
Secondly it is critical to recognize that one of the biggest reasons supermarkets are unhealthy is not technically due to the supermarkets themselves. Instead, supermarkets are unhealthy because people do not shop at them. Every year fewer people are getting their food from the supermarket, instead people turn to unhealthier food environments such as fast-food chains, convenience stores and restaurants (with the exception of the pandemic years, 2020-2021). In 2022 American’s spent 20.7% more on eating out than they did on groceries and in the first few months of 2023 the number rose to 29.5%.31 Additionally, people in the U.S. and Canada ate the fewest number of home-cooked meals per week out of any region in the world in 2022, averaging only 8.4 meals per week.32 This is a problem because ready-made meals from these popular food environments are unhealthier compared to food bought at the supermarket and then prepared at home. When people cook their own food, they are better in control of the sodium, fat, and sugar that goes into their food, and ingredients are also more likely to be fresher and therefore more nutritious. Recent evidence has shown that cooking your own food can be an effective medical intervention for heart related diseases, diabetes, and obesity.33 Furthermore, when people cook
for themselves, they typically have a better relationship with their food simply because they are aware of the ingredients going into the dish and feel more connected to the food. This better relationship typically leads people to be more health conscious and more aware of the food that they are consuming. People also feel more likely to eat healthy food when they make it themselves, contributing to the positive argument for home cooking. A prominent reason for the decrease in home cooking is due to the increase in supermarket prices. According to the United States department of agriculture grocery prices rose 11.4% in 2022. Inflation plays a role in this price rise but global factors such as climate change, the war in Ukraine, and outbreaks of livestock disease have affected food availability and therefore have also affected food prices. These are indications that aspects of the local food system must change if it is to adequately serve the population. Another reason for a decrease in home cooking in the increased demand for convenience in America. As mentioned previously, the biggest reason for supermarkets being unhealthy is that they are not utilized enough, but this does not mean the supermarkets are perfect as they are. Supermarkets have done much good for the health of the American people but there is still much to improve on as is evident in the fact that many people are choosing to get their meals in other food environments. Something that supermarkets and in particular supermarkets in the suburbs lead to is issues with overconsumption and excessive food waste. The supermarkets contribute to this because they provide an overwhelming selection of food.
31. Bomey, “Restaurants Top Groceries.” 32. Saric, “Home Cooking Falls to Pre-Pandemic Levels in North America.” 33. Tello and Polak, “Home Cooking.”
27.
Neighborhoods Left Behind These health problems in the suburbs and supermarkets are happening all over America but certain neighborhoods have felt the effects more strongly. These neighborhoods historically have been affected by redlining practices that have caused them to fall behind in development. More than other suburban neighborhoods, communities affected by redlining experience higher amounts of diabetes, hypertension , and early mortality due to heart disease.34
28.
34.Egede et al., “Modern Day Consequences of Historic Redlining.”
24 Million People
live in disadvantaged neighborhoods
44 Million People are food insecure in the United States
29.
Supermarket Redlining, Food Deserts, and Food Swamps Supermarket redlining practices also apply to these underprivileged neighborhoods. Supermarket redlining is a practice in which major supermarket chains are disinclined to locate their stores in low-income neighborhoods. This restriction of supermarkets defines which neighborhoods get to thrive and which ones are left without adequate food choices. Lack of supermarkets plays an important role in the prevalence of food insecurity in the area because supermarkets are one of the few food environments to provide healthy food. Because of this practice certain neighborhoods are left in food deserts and food swamps. Food deserts are areas where residents access to healthy food is restricted due to limited supermarket availability within a convenient traveling distance.35 Food swamps are neighborhoods with higher proportions of unhealthy food environments compared to healthy ones. Food swamps contain high amounts of fast food options and snacks.36
MO
12% OK
13.8% TX
13.7%
12.3%
AR
15%
AL
MS 13.1% LA 15.3%
14.5%
Most Food Insecure States
Data taken from the USDA Food Access Research Atlas
30.
KY
35.“Food Deserts* - Food Empowerment Project.” 36. “Food Swamps.”
WV 14%
SC 12.6%
MO
17% NM
AR
19%
23% TX
LA
19%
TN 16% MS
AL
30% 18%
SC GA 18%
22%
22%
Top States in Food Desert by Population
Data taken from the USDA Food Access Research Atlas
Chicago Indianapolis San Bernardino Phoenix Dallas
Atlanta
Houston
Tampa
Orlando
Top Cities in Food Desert by Population
Data taken from the USDA Food Access Research Atlas
31.
04 New Suburban Food Environments
There are many ways to try and alleviate the health problems in the suburbs. Many new neighborhood and city planning projects have been successful in promoting walkability to reduce health risks. These projects often propose solutions to make infrastructure more pedestrian friendly by reducing the infrastructure devoted to the car. The change in infrastructure is a necessary first step to promote better health in the suburbs as it gives people the opportunity to walk around. However, this is only one piece of the puzzle. While changing the infrastructure to be more pedestrian friendly makes it easier to people to walk or take public transportation, people will not walk places if they do not have a valuable destination to walk to. We need to build place-based destinations to give people a place to walk to and to help build stronger communities in the suburbs. Food does an excellent job of providing a destination for people to walk to because everyone must eat. Food environments especially of the communal variety have also shown to help revive struggling communities because food helps people feel connected to place.37 A food network of healthy food environments rooted in community should be built to reconnect the suburbs helping people reconnect with both food and each other to improve the health outcomes of the suburbs
32.
37. Chynoweth, “The New Food Businesses Helping to Revive Urban Communities.”
33.
Adaptive Reuse of Suburban Dead Spaces
38. Bloomberg, “Can Grocery Stores Save the American Mall?”
To begin this new suburban food network the first step is to build a strong central food hub. This could be represented in a variety of different food environments, but to encourage people to eat healthier, this food hub will take the form of a supermarket. The primary food hub should be in a location that is central and easily accessible by pedestrians and should activate a piece of the suburban fabric. A location in particular need of revitalization are malls. Malls are suburban dead spaces due to lack of foot traffic since the advent of Online shopping. If they are to survive, malls will need to undergo significant changes in order to increase customers. A significant change could be putting a supermarket in the mall. In several instances supermarkets have been shown to be the appropriate anchor store that malls need. In San Jose, California a grocery store was opened in the Westfield Oakridge mall, since then foot traffic to the mall has been up 10%38 indicating that supermarkets are valuable assets to keeping malls alive. The reactivation of the mall with the supermarket at the center will again allow the mall to support more businesses, and the mall can take the form of the new high street in suburbia. People will be drawn to the mall by the necessity of groceries and can stay there to complete their shopping needs at the various businesses. This will promote walkability from shop to shop and will provide people with a sense of community as they are more likely to interact with each other in this space.
Shared Kitchens
34.
The mall supermarket will provide the community with a central food hub, but other food environments are necessary to continue building a healthy connected neighborhood through food. Another element that can help support a healthier suburban food system is the idea of a shared kitchen. Shared kitchens are popular in Spain, Japan, Peru, and several
other countries. These shared kitchens take several different forms, but they all help in fighting hunger, and diet-related diseases.39 They also serve as a useful tool to educate communities about food as they often provide education to others on how to cook. Food education is an essential aspect of healing suburban communities because food education and cooking literacy is liked to healthier diets. Shared kitchens also help provide a sense of community because they provide infrastructure for people to share meals together. This is important because “research shows that the more often people eat with others the more likely they are to feel satisfied and happy with their life.”40 This is valuable to improve health outcomes of suburban communities in terms of mental health. The shared kitchen can be utilized in a number of different ways. A shared kitchen in the central food hub would be valuable because it could take on a larger form in the central food hub environment. A shared kitchen of this nature could feed larger quantities of the community. Shared kitchens could also be located between houses in side yard space. These kitchens would be smaller, serving only a few families. However, this would provide opportunities for more intimate connections within the community to be formed.
39. Philipp, “Community Kitchens Around the World.” 40. “Social Eating Connects Communities | University of Oxford.”
Figure b.
Figure a.
Figure c.
Shared Kitchen Served by Shared Kitchen Not Served by Shared Kitchen Shared Kitchen Placement Figure a. shows kitchen placement within the central food hub. This shared kitchen type has the ability to serve more members of the community. Figure b. shows a shared kitchen between side lawns. This type serves less of the community. Figure c. shows old houses adapted for shared kitchen use. This shared kitchen type can serve more of the community.
35.
Urban Farming in lawns :
Urban Farming on Roofs :
Urban Farming in Parking Lots :
36.
The last healthy food environment in the new suburban food system is a local food agriculture system. Although it is necessary for communities to be tied to the global food system, it does not mean they have to be fully reliant on the global food system. As indicated previously, our global food system is experiencing problems which increase the cost of food. Communities that produce at least a portion of their food are more likely to have access to affordable healthy food that people need to sustain themselves. Additionally food is usually fresher and of higher quality when it is grown locally.41 Urban farming also allows people to feel more connected to the land and their food because they are more involved with the process and more educated about where their food comes from. This connection helps people make healthier food choices. Urban farming can take place in a variety of suburban dead spaces and can take on a variety of different scales. At the smallest scale people can use their yards to grow their own food. At larger scales parking lots can be utilized and restored to suburban farm patches. Additionally rooftops of big box stores and malls can be considered for urban farming methods.
Urban Farming
37.
05 Proposal
With all these factors in mind it is critical to choose a site that will most benefit from new healthy food environments and a connected suburban food network. The site should be in an area that is victim to the negative effects of suburban sprawl. To find a site of this nature areas that have experienced rapid urbanization and sprawl were analyzed. Rapid urbanization is key in this scenario, because rapid development typically results in poorly planned and disconnected communities. These qualities are of particular interest for this project. The site should also contain several suburban spaces that are struggling. These spaces include malls and supermarkets or convenience stores. The site should also be in a food insecure neighborhood, located in a food desert, food swamp, or both. Lastly the site should be in a community that is struggling with health outcomes. From these factors north Pasadena, Texas, a suburb of Houston, Texas has been identified as a potential site for this project. North Pasadena, Texas contains the Macroplaza Mall which has been struggling for years. This mall is centrally located withing the suburbs and has the potential to be a walkable community food hub for many. The zip code surrounding the mall is in an area of high food insecurity and is in a moderate food desert. Additionally, this zip code experiences high percentages of obesity, diabetes, and sedentary lifestyles. Therefore, this site has been deemed an appropriate place for this project.
38.
39.
1 in 5
North Pasadena Residents Live in Food Insecure Homes
40.
North Pasadena scores a 5 on the food insecurity index scale (The highest score), indicating that north Pasadena is in a high area of need.
North Pasadena is also considered to be in a moderate food desert, with limited access to nutritious food. Additionally, this zip code experiences high levels of obesity, diabetes, and sedentary lifestyles. Pasadena is also home to the nearly abandoned Macroplaza Mall. Adequate Food Retail
Inadequate Food Retail
Fast Food
Macroplaza Mall
41.
Figure a.
Figure b.
Figure c.
Supermarket Distribution Through Mall Figure a. shows the supermarket in red occupying the main atrium of the mall. Additional businesses line the supermarket in blue. In figure b, the supermarket is distributed into a series of small shops throughout the main mall atrium. Supermarket shops are red and other businesses are blue. Figure c. shows the supermarket concentrated in one part of the mall in red. Business exist as they are in blue.
Proposed Suburban Foodscape In the new suburban foodscape three primary food environments are present. The supermarket is represented in blue, Shared kitchens are represented in red, and urban farm elements are represented in green. In this proposal the nearly abandoned Macroplaza mall is restored by placing a supermarket within. Shared kitchens are located throughout this foodscape to promote connectivity and food education. Lastly urban farms are located in the in-between spaces (lawns and parking lot). Urban farming allows the community to be more resilient and furthers food education.
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Program The program will contain a master plan of the site showing locations for the three healthy food environments described previously(Supermarket, Shared Kitchen, and Urban Farm). The master plan’s purpose is to show how healthy food environments can knit suburbia back together by forming meaningful connections through food. The supermarket within the mall will be designed in further detail as it will serve as the central food hub for the community. In the mall supermarket the goal will be to provide adequate healthy food, healthy food education, and community support. The supermarkets form can be dispersed throughout the mall’s central atrium or consolidated in one location. Other supporting features will also be included in the program such as a nutrition education center, cooking education center, and communal dining center. These aspects will help to form a healthier food environment that can benefit the health outcomes of suburbia.
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