Review Of Why Is More Than A Grocery Store To Eliminate A Food Desert

Summary and Review of Why is takes more than a Grocery Store to Eliminate a Food Desert

Sarah Corapi’s article, Why is takes more than a Grocery Store to Eliminate a Food Desert, addresses the important issue of “food deserts”: the health issues imposed on the people living in these areas, what steps have been made to improve these unacceptable areas, and what work there is yet left to do. In the PBS article Mrs. Corapi interviews Professor Steven Cummins, whom had worked in a study over what kind of impact a new grocery store had made on the people living in a Philadelphia town. The results were more than somewhat shocking. Despite having better access to healthy foods, it seemed that many people remained trapped in their poor eating habits.

By presenting the conflict on how to approach and ameliorate food deserts, Cummins is able to convey to the reader the complexity of the issue. Once the topic of the study is introduced and briefly examined, he includes further data gathered from an additional study done in England. This study is over the reasoning behind people’s choices for using, or not using, the new store facility to buy fresh produce. This is such an important collection of information to include because once the reasoning, or the lack there of, behind a decision is understood, plans to help establish improved eating habits can then be implemented. The problem with the current approach to solving the issue by, “just building supermarkets to increase access” (Cummins 20) it that policy makers did and still have not taken into account the mentality of the people involved. Although the fact that an effort is being made to improve conditions for these people is enough to inspire hope for their future health, there is still much more that needs to be done. Whether revisions occur in the form of changes in policies, public awareness, or campaigning by stores to make healthy foods more financially appealing, something desperately needs to be done and soon. The people living in these food deserts have been forced into horrible dietary habits, and now once presented with the ability to change, are unsure of how to achieve this goal of change. It is the obligation of all the people to educate, and inspire others to reform their diets, and ultimately improve their own