Combating Food Deserts: Assessing the Consequences of Healthy Food Retailers in Low- Income Neighborhoods

Abstract

The Healthy Food Financing Initiative introduces healthy food retailers in “food deserts”. Despite the multi-million federal investment in this initiative, today we see little to no improvement in access of healthy foods in these areas. While some scholars champion the ingenuity of this initiative, others argue that this initiative may bring more economic and racial disparities in healthy food access. Scholars and policy makers need to reevaluate their federal investment and explore a more locally-based alternative solution to make the basic necessity of healthy food available to all.