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    Panelists Discuss Food Deserts and Nutrition Access In Urban Communities

    Members of the Columbus Metropolitan Club gathered Wednesday to listen to a panel discussion about the pressing issue of food and food access in Ohio. The panelists talked about the danger of “food deserts,” areas where people, frequently poor and more likely African-American than white, find themselves cut off from sources of healthy food options.

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    “Our community has very high rates of chronic diseases,” said Dr. Mysheika Williams Roberts, assistant health commissioner at Columbus Public Health. Roberts said that 66 percent of deaths in the community are the result of chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease that could be prevented by access to better nutrition.

    “When we look at that chronic disease and how it’s distributed throughout our community, we notice that there are definitely pockets in our community right here in Franklin County and in Columbus that are lacking the resources to have healthy options or healthier options at their disposal,” said Roberts.

    Caroline Harries, associate director for the Food Trust, based in Philadelphia, also participated in the panel. She spoke about how the Food Trust developed a system of farmers markets across Philadelphia and started bringing more food education into the public schools. Harries said the nutrition education programs succeeded in getting kids to want more healthy food and ask for healthier meals at home, but access to nutritious food remained a problem.

    “Farmers markets are wonderful, but limited by the growing season and just a couple days a week,” said Harries, “so we’re looking for a year-round, sustainable source.”

    Harries said there has been a reduction of obesity among school children in Philadelphia, which she said is a result of increasing nutrition education and food access. Harries also credited the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative which was founded in 2004 and which Harries said gave about 500,000 Pennsylvanians access to healthy food.

    Michelle Moskowitz Brown, executive director for the food-focused non-profit Local Matters, warned that “the current generation of children is expected to have a shorter lifespan than their parents and we believe that everyone has the right to healthy, affordable food that meets their dietary needs and their preferences.”

    Brown described Local Matters’ community food planning process, which enables residents, faith leaders and community organizations to locate the problems with accessing food in their neighborhoods and figure out what priorities are right for the area in order to come up with a solution plan.

    “It might be transportation in one neighborhood, or it might be, on the South Side, that there are a lot of food options but none of them are very good,” said Brown.

    Brown said that part of what the process accomplishes is to ensure that residents don’t feel as if healthy options are being forced upon them. One goal, said Brown, is to help individuals see how to make food that is affordable, healthy and within their traditions.

    Mark Barbash of Finance Fund moderated the panel discussion and spoke about how Finance Fund was drawn to the issue of food access after learning that two million Ohioans are underserved by food retail. One question Barbash asked the panelists was how public policy could assist with food access programs already in place.

    Brown said that government SNAP benefits go a long way to helping people in need get the right nutrition. She also pointed out that on a national level, the federal government subsidizes cash crops but not food, hindering efforts to increase nutritional eating.

    Roberts said that policy tends to incentivize people to eat healthier.

    “Behavior is a really hard thing to change,” said Roberts, but if there are policies in place and resources available, “if they have easy access to them, they’re more likely to use them.”

    Roberts said that after SNAP benefits were doubled last year, she saw a 61 percent increase in SNAP users at the farmers market operated by Columbus Public Health.

    “So that’s an example of a policy where people were given resources and with those resources they chose to consume more fruits and vegetables,” said Roberts.

    The panelists also spoke frequently about the role of education in healthy food habits. Brown said that food access and education are “inextricably linked.” Parents can’t afford for food to go to waste, said Brown, so they need to know that if they buy healthy food, their children will want to eat it. Brown said that Local Matters has programs in place to educate kids on healthy eating so that they will ask for healthier foods when they’re home.

    Barbash turned the discussion toward whether or not the food access problem was getting better in Columbus, particularly considering the city’s unusually high infant mortality rate. Roberts said that the situation does not appear to be getting any better.

    “When we do studies and we look at the number of grocery stores in a community compared to the number of fast food outlets, we see that there are many more fast food outlets in our neighborhoods than there are grocery stores,” said Roberts.

    Without options, said Roberts, people are likely to choose the easiest, cheapest option. Roberts said that along with the lack of healthy food options, poverty, infant mortality and obesity are increasing and in each problem there is a huge disparity between African-Americans and whites.

    The panelists also discussed the impact of affordability on the food choices of a neighborhood and acknowledged the perception that healthy food is too expensive. Harries said that easier access to food can impact cost by reducing time and transportation expenses, and questioned whether fast food is actually cheaper than a home cooked meal. Roberts said there are still ways that people can eat healthier and live within their budgets.

    “The key is for healthier food, so it doesn’t have to be all organic,” said Roberts. “You can find a mix where you can use some fresh fruits and vegetables and maybe some frozen vegetables.”

    For ongoing discussion on Food Deserts in Columbus, CLICK HERE to visit our Messageboard.

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    Jesse Bethea
    Jesse Betheahttps://columbusunderground.com
    Jesse Bethea is a freelance features writer at Columbus Underground covering neighborhood issues, economics, science, technology and other topics. He is a graduate from Ohio University, a native of Fairfax, Virginia and a fan of movies, politics and baseball. Jesse is the winner of The Great Novel Contest and the author of Fellow Travellers, available now at all major retailers.
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