Food Deserts

Food deserts are geographical areas in which residents do not have access to affordable, healthy food options (especially fruits, vegetables, and organic foods) due to an absence of grocery stores within a convenient traveling distance. 

New analysis from the Association of American Medical Colleges and USDA shows that over 23 million Americans live in food deserts.

In urban areas, economic forces have driven grocery stores out of many cities in recent years, making them so few and far between that an individual’s food shopping trip may require taking several buses or trains.

Unfortunately, it is far easier for families to buy highly processed food from fast food restaurants and dollar stores.

Food insecurity does not hit all Americans equally — race is a dominating factor. Black families are twice as likely to be food insecure as White families, with 19.1% of Black households and 15.6% of Latinx households experiencing food insecurity in 2019 compared to 7.9% for White families. This clear racial divide is often a product of underinvestment in Black neighborhoods for supermarkets, grocery stores, and affordable food options. Majority-Black neighborhoods are more than twice as likely as majority-White neighborhoods not to have a supermarket.

Help Americans become healthier one bite at a time by purchasing Bazinga Bites now. For every bite you buy, we donate to a family in a food desert.