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Not knowing when or where your next meal is coming from is the harsh reality for over 44 million people in the United States, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA defines food insecurity as a “household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food.”
Food insecurity can be exacerbated by food deserts—found in both rural and urban areas—where the USDA defines it as a person being geographically 10 miles away from a supermarket or large grocery store.
The emergence of food deserts is closely linked to the growth of the most popular place in many American communities.
At the beginning of the 20th century, most urban and working-class neighborhoods were home to a vibrant tapestry of corner stores where people bought their food, according to University of Minnesota Associate Professor of History Dr. Tracey Deutsch. These stores, ranging from grocers to butchers, were small, specialized shops within walking distance of the community.
In the 1930s through 1940s, supermarkets emerged on the market as capital switched to large businesses. These stores offered more products with a more consistent level of quality. Smaller grocery stores struggled to keep pace as supermarkets had greater access to supply chains and the ability to maintain lower costs.
As the development of supermarkets increased and smaller stores continued to close, the gap between many communities and places to get fresh food widened, leaving people in both urban and rural areas without a grocery store nearby.
“We often think of food deserts as an urban phenomenon. But in fact, some of the worst food deserts exist in rural areas,” Deutsch says. “In Minnesota, where I live, food deserts are a problem for many groups of people, but they are a particular problem in rural areas where many people are an hour from a store.”
Northern New Mexico has its roots in agriculture. The region is home to Taos—a city with roughly 6,500 people. The mayor of Taos, Pascualito Maestas, says the town—once self-sustainable and independent—now relies on outside sources of food.
“The farther you get from the city centers, you see more food insecurity … there’s a lot of poverty in New Mexico, combined with wealth. So, what we do see in Taos are lots of use of services, (including) food pantries and reliance on food stamps. And that has, kind of, become the norm,” Maestas says.
According to Maestas, the city is employing a strategy to work with the Taos County Economic Development Corporation to build a meat processing plant. Currently, the nearest facility is in southern Colorado, which means local farmers and ranchers must drive several hours away to sell and prepare their meat rather than conducting these activities locally.
“Large meat processing facilities make significant profit buying cattle from local ranchers for pennies on the dollar and then selling the meat products at a premium. Working with a local meat processor like TCEDC will create opportunities for local ranchers to share in the profit from meat products.”
Maestas hopes to create an industry that is profitable for farmers and ranchers, which in turn, helps the local economy and food systems. Maestas added that there is a “desire from our restaurants to serve locally produced grass-fed beef.”
“By supporting this industry, we create more agriculture in northern New Mexico,” Maestas says.
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New Mexico is known for breathtaking vistas, hot air balloons, and world-famous chiles. It’s also an incredibly rural state, with only seven of its 33 counties containing predominantly urban areas and over 285,000 New Mexicans facing food insecurity and hunger.
Former research and policy analyst at New Mexico Voices for Children and current medical student at the University of New Mexico Derek Lin says counties in northern New Mexico lack funding to improve infrastructure, which can cause further strain for people who are food insecure.
“Often, the roads are poorly maintained and the infrastructure is underfunded, which makes it much more difficult to get to the grocery store. If you need to drive five to ten miles to get to the grocery store and there’s a rainstorm on poorly maintained roads, it makes it a lot harder for your family to access fresh groceries,” Lin says. It’s also difficult for supply trucks to get to grocers under those conditions.
The Food Depot, a partner distribution organization of Feeding America, collaborates with 70 nonprofit agencies in nine counties to create healthy communities in northern New Mexico, where roughly 40,000 people experience food insecurity.
The Food Depot has programs to ease food insecurity—like mobile food pantries and in-school food pantries. Communications Coordinator Amanda Bregel says the “Food Mobile” pantries operate in more rural environments where people are unable to leave their homes.
The Food Mobile provides people with pantry staples like fresh produce and meat. No proof of income or identification is required, and the sites, often at fire stations or community centers, are open to everyone.
“We always try to focus on healthy food, so more than half of the 10 million pounds we give out is fruits and vegetables,” Bregel says.
Bregel says the Food Depot is also working on giving clients access to more culturally appropriate foods. The organization recently surveyed clients in rural areas and asked if they felt that they had choices in their food and if it was relevant to their needs.
On the other side of the country, another state is plagued by food insecurity. Alabama is the seventh poorest state in the nation and has around 2 million residents living in a food desert, with 150,000 of them living in Birmingham. The issue is not just poverty itself, says Teresa Shufflebarger, Chief Administrative Officer for Live HealthSmart Alabama, but generational poverty where families cannot escape the cycle.
People living in poverty tend to live in low-income communities that businesses have long abandoned, leaving residents with no access to grocery stores for food or reliable places of employment. Birmingham City Council Member Crystal Smitherman says systemic racial inequality continues to hurt society, including food systems.
“After decades of discriminatory practices such as redlining, interstate systems that cut off neighborhoods, and underfunded educational opportunities, many residents have found themselves in areas that lack resources to live a healthy lifestyle,” Smitherman says.
Smitherman has championed efforts to combat food insecurity since she joined the council in 2019. She has partnered with organizations like the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama, Jones Valley Teaching Farm, and Live HealthSmart to provide fresh, healthy food to residents in Birmingham.
Most recently, Smitherman has worked on the Food Sovereign Program, passed by the city council in the spring of 2023 with grant funding from the USDA. The program helps establish and support urban farms throughout Birmingham, hires a food systems manager for the city, and creates space for urban farmers’ markets.
“I believe we can build a more just and equitable food system for residents who have, for too long, not had the same opportunities as communities when it comes to access to healthy food … There is an appetite for change in our community, and I believe this will be a major step towards making that happen for our residents,” Smitherman says.
Image courtesy of Brandon Olafsson via Adobe Stock
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