Dr. Maya Rockeymoore, president and CEO of Global Policy Solutions and Director of Leadership for Healthy Communities, was recently featured in a Washington Informer article on "food deserts" in the Washington, D.C. area and how they affect the obesity rate and overall health of the District's population.
An excerpt:
"Food deserts are deserts in terms of having access to healthy foods. But many times, they have an overabundance of fast foods available to them -- restaurants, up and down the strip -- and that's all they have access to." Rockeymore said. "Some communities don't have access to grocery stores where they can get access to healthy foods."
Rockeymoore contends these calorie-rich/vitamin-deficient food sources in low-income neighborhoods are contributors to the disproportionate health issues faced by residents of these communities, including obesity.
A study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that more than 23 million Americans, including 6.5 million children, live in low-income urban and rural neighborhoods where the closest supermarket is more than one mile from their homes.
While it would be nice to have nutritious food options in every neighborhood in the District, the fact of the matter is that "certain stores tend not to locate in areas where they don't believe there is adequate demand by their target customers to support them," says Rockeymoore.
Read the full article here.
