FEATURE
ACCESS, DISPARITY, EQUITY & INSECURITY:
M
ost people agree that access to affordable, healthy food is a basic human right. Sadly, millions of Americans struggle daily to access enough food for their families. There is a growing awareness of this problem, efforts to address it are expanding and new terminology to describe food access issues is more widely used. “Food equity” means there is healthy, nutritious, culturally connected and sustainable food for all. “Food disparity,” on the other hand, refers to unequal access to healthy and nutritious food, often leading to poor health outcomes disproportionately affecting lowincome communities of color. The USDA’s 2017 food access report showed that about 39.5 million people were living in low-access and low-income neighborhoods. According to Partnership for a Healthier America, “Regardless of terminology used, under-resourced neighborhoods have less access to healthy foods while often having greater access to food sources that promote unhealthy eating. As neighborhood poverty increases, supermarket availability decreases and convenience stores increase, regardless of race/ethnicity.”
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