Food and Nutrition
Food and nutritious food are fundamental to many public health issues we face today.
Food insecurity refers to when someone lacks access to enough food for an active and healthy lifestyle.
Food apartheid is a system of segregation that divides those with access to an abundance of nutritious food and those who have been denied that access due to systemic injustice.
At the heart of food apartheid is structural violence that affects communities of color like redlining and economic deprivation.
Redlining created access barriers to healthy and accessible foods for marginalized communities.
Economic deprivation left and kept many people, especially people of color, in poverty and thus unable to buy healthy foods.
The pandemic exacerbated food insecurity and highlighted just how inequitable and fragile the US food system is.
In April 2020, at the start of the pandemic, food insecurity doubled to nearly 1 in 4 (22.7%) households in the US experiencing food insecurity.
In 2021, approximately
42 million people, including 13 million children (1 in 6 children), experienced food insecurity.
In 2020, Black and Hispanic households experienced double the rate of food insecurity than White households (21.7%, 17.2%, 7.1%, respectively).
In another data set, American Indians and Alaska Natives showed that 1 in 5 (~20%) were food insecure.
26% of Native communities lived within 1 mile of a supermarket vs 59% of all people living in the US.
The issue of food is an intersectional determinant that is impacted by poverty, lack of transportation, lack of adequate federal or state policies, and more.
Food impacts educational outcomes, health outcomes, stress, mental health and so much more.
Many of the chronic diseases that disproportionately affect communities of color stem from inadequate food or nutritious foods.
The Black Panther Breakfast Program which started in 1969 fed children before school, many of whom never had breakfast before, as a means to alleviate hunger and poverty as a necessity for Black liberation.
The concerns of food insecurity still plague Black and other communities of color to this day.
Until all children are fed, many of the social determinants of health will continue to persist.
Having access to affordable and healthy foods are inextricably linked to health outcomes through the life course.
At the most basic level, people need nutritious foods to satisfy their hierarchy of needs and achieve their best health and self-actualization.
At the heart of solutions for food apartheid are:
- Economic justice where people are paid a living wage and thus able to afford healthy food
- Improvement in local & regional food systems feeding their communities
- Decreasing transportation barriers to healthy foods
- Increased healthy food financing initiatives (HFFI) to lessen barrier for retailers to sell more affordable healthy foods
- Continuing to expand on SNAP & WIC until they are not needed because of above
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Links and Further Readings:
- Food and Nutrition | National Public Health Week
- Food Security: A Community Driver of Health
- New Poverty and Food Insecurity Data Illustrate Persistent Racial Inequities – American Progress
- How the Black Panthers’ Breakfast Program Both Inspired and Threatened the Government – History
- Black Panther Party Community Survival Programs – BPPALN
- Hunger impacts Native American families and communities – Feeding America
- Hunger hits Black communities harder – Feeding America
- Map the Meal Gap – Feeding America
