This past April, Peter Capone-Newton, M.D., of the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Lawrence DeFreitas, Youth and Volunteer Programs Coordinator for Community Services Unlimited participated in a special lunchtime panel discussion on food insecurity in Los Angeles. The panel discussed how food insecurity in Los Angeles plays out in the daily reality of families and the disparities in availability of healthy food by neighborhood, with economically disadvantaged and racial/ethnic minority neighborhoods having little to no access to grocery stores with fresh fruits and vegetables.
Dr. Capone-Newton defined food security as “access of all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy lifestyle.” In 2011, 14.9% of U.S. households reported food insecurity, indicating that the distribution of nutritious food remains a serious problem even in a country where food supplies are abundant. Dr. Capone-Newton presented research showing that differences in diet-related disease vary across social strata. Over half of the U.S. population is now overweight or obese, with the poor suffering disproportionate rates of obesity and disease. He also presented evidence from RAND’s Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (LA FANS), which surveyed health measures and other indicators such as grocery store locations and usage by families throughout Los Angeles County. The study found no supermarkets in areas considered very poor, and consequently only 32% of residents in these areas report shopping at supermarkets for their groceries. While other socio-economic factors at the individual and household level have an impact on people’s health and propensity to food insecurity, this research shows that social structures and policies such as grocery store access have a strong effect on health outcomes.
Mr. de Freitas spoke to the background of his organization and its growth out of the Black Panthers’ non-profit arm, providing food distribution and legal aid services. During the course of working on after-school programs, members of the group noticed the problems children were having in school as being associated with poor nutrition and an unhealthy diet. A community food assessment of South Los Angeles showed an overabundance of fast food establishments and a lack of access to fresh, nutritious, affordable food. Through its Community Food Village program, Community Services Unlimited is developing multiple programs aimed at improving education and access to good nutrition for South L.A. families. For instance, their marketplace distributes produce from local farmers, their CSA program provides weekly boxes of fresh fruits and vegetables, and they are working to source and distribute local produce to corner stores to improve their selection of fresh and healthy foods. Mr. de Freitas also noted that because access and transportation are such difficult issues in Los Angeles, Community Services Unlimited’s Metamorphosis project maps good food resources and bicycle and pedestrian routes to access these outlets (the map can be viewed here).
The panel discussion was an annual joint presentation of the Lewis Center and the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs’ Department of Social Welfare.