“I don’t say food desert, I say food apartheid”

Community-engaged research to understand food insecurity

Abstract

Physical access to healthy food in the U.S. has been shaped by social and economic structures that include historical segregation and inequities in neighborhood development and investment. African Americans are most likely to reside in these historically segregated and economically challenged neighborhoods that have fewer healthy food options. Consequently, residents face significantly greater barriers to accessing healthy foods. To better understand the food insecurity experiences and food access needs of residents living in pre­dominantly African American neighborhoods, we used a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach and partnered with a community advisory board (CAB) in an urban Florida commu­nity. The CAB sought to capture the experience of living in a food desert by designing data collection tools, and recruiting and interviewing participants who lived or had family ties in Southeast Gainesville. Between February and December 2021, the team hosted three online focus groups with a total of 17 adult participants and administered a 35-item survey (N = 103). The survey response showing that 48% could not consistently afford to prepare a healthy meal was used as a measure of food insecu­rity. Significant predictors of this response were whether the participant also worried about running out of food (OR = 0.181, 95% CI [0.058, 0.561]), used Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) assistance (OR = 0.515, 95% CI [0.266, 0.997]), and occasionally had to avoid their pre­ferred grocery store for some reason (OR = 0.177, 95% CI [0.049, 0.641]). Over one third (37%) of households reported special dietary needs due to health issues, and many of those (39%) said they had trouble meeting those needs. Two major themes emerged from the qualitative data: navi­gating the structures of food apartheid and com­munity food solutions. Underscoring the need for CBPR approaches to food systems planning and intervention, these results suggest that local knowl­edge of the food environment is critical for under­standing how households in food deserts experi­ence food insecurity and view potential solutions.­