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Michael Norton, Principal Policy Analyst, Reinvestment Fund
Michelle Schmidt, Reinvestment Fund Senior Analyst II
Access to healthy, fresh, and affordable food is not just a matter of convenience; it is fundamental to the well-being of individuals and communities. In the United States, due to historical and institutional barriers such as disinvestment, income inequality, transportation barriers, and food prices, 8.5% of residents go to a full-service supermarket compared to residents in similar areas. He has to travel nearly twice as far. income. Additionally, nearly half of the people living in the communities experiencing the greatest barriers to accessing healthy, fresh food are Black and Brown. This is significantly higher than the 36% share of black and brown residents nationally.
As a mission-driven financial institution, the Reinvestment Fund leverages research tools, financial resources, and community partnerships to support community-driven solutions to combat food access barriers. For more than a decade, the Reinvestment Fund’s Limited Supermarket Access (LSA) analysis combines traditional full-service supermarkets with smaller-form interventions that bridge the gap in residents’ ability to access fresh, local food. has been used to identify opportunities to strengthen local food systems. their community.
The 2023 update to LSA Analytics enhances the tool’s usefulness by expanding the geographic reach of the analysis across the United States and incorporating the latest data related to supermarket location, sales, and socio-demographics. Masu. He also classifies restricted areas into three different types.
A case study on the Reinvestment Fund’s investments in Georgia provides LSA with a detailed picture of the local food retail market and shows how best to meet the needs of people in areas where full-service supermarkets are difficult to reach. We show how this can aid in decision-making regarding appropriate interventions.
From 2010 to 2020, the total number of Georgia residents with limited access to supermarkets increased by more than 15%, reaching approximately 9% of the state’s total population in 2020. In the Atlanta metro area, the number of residents living in restricted areas increased by approximately 22% during this period, amounting to nearly 11% of the area’s population. Population growth tends to outpace grocery store growth in high-growth states and metropolitan areas across the country. These overall increases suggest that much work is needed to address food access across the state. But LSA’s analysis also suggests that restricted areas across the state and in metro Atlanta are evenly distributed across different income levels and diverse racial and ethnic communities.
From 2018 to 2022, the Reinvestment Fund funded four healthy food retail projects in Georgia through the Healthy Food Finance Initiative (HFFI) Targeted Small Grants Program. The program provides grants to innovative fresh food retail and food system companies seeking to improve access to healthy food in underserved communities. As an example, HFFI helped launch a mobile market to sell food to residents living in restricted areas near rural southeastern Georgia. In another case, the HFFI Foundation helped develop a new full-service grocery store in Albany, Georgia, with a business model based on selling fresh produce at affordable prices.
A national analysis shows that restricted areas are disproportionately located in rural, middle-income areas. Clinch Memorial Hospital is located in Homerville, Georgia. This small town is surrounded by countryside and remote areas. His is the only full-service grocery store in town, and there are no other grocery stores nearby. The median income of residents in the North and South restricted areas ranges from 80% to 120% of the state’s median household income of $48,000 to $72,000.
The hospital’s mobile market serves rural residents in surrounding counties, including the restricted area outlined in dark blue south of the hospital. Support from mobile markets is an important part of a fair food retail industry. Most residents of this restricted area must travel approximately 37 miles to reach a full-service store. New market healthy food options can help ease that burden. (See map 1)
Proximity is one factor in access to food. Another thing is being able to afford groceries. Located in Albany, Georgia, Food for Less is a full-service grocery store under the Piggly Wiggly banner with a business model of fresh produce at discounted prices. The median household income in the Food for Less area is less than 80% of the state median of approximately $48,000. HFFI’s Food for Less investments help improve food access for communities located in previously restricted areas and with the promise of lower prices. The store opened in January 2022, replacing a full-service store that closed in 2018. While stores are being replaced by Food for Less, data shows the closure of several local stores has reduced the food retail options available to residents. Without Food for Less, residents of this community would be living in a restricted area. That means they have to travel almost twice as far to get to the nearest grocery store as residents of similar communities. (See map 2)
Behind the data are real individuals and communities facing the challenge of accessing healthy, fresh, and affordable food. Understanding a place’s economics and food retail landscape helps inform how projects like Clinch Memorial Hospital’s Mobile His Market and Food for Less are important to local residents. These projects also support traditional real-world solutions to address food access across the country, where population dispersion and/or limited purchasing power can limit community demand for large-format stores. Demonstrating the need for both in-store retail and innovative solutions.
The Reinvestment Fund operates on the belief that everyone should have an equal opportunity to grow, and we are committed to working with communities to turn these statistics into stories of positive change. Masu. CDFIs and other stakeholders interested in improving food access can use LSA analysis to support areas with inadequate and inequitable access to healthy foods and new or expanded food retail operations. Identify areas where there is sufficient market demand to
To view the complete results of the newly released LSA analysis, please visit the Reinvestment Fund website. For more information on food access initiatives and opportunities, please visit www.reinvestment.com/focus-areas/food-systems.
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