Mapping Washington, DC's Urban Food Deserts

"Urban food deserts" is a term that economists apply to areas and neighborhoods in cities that lack grocery stores.  All too often, urban food deserts are found in low-income neighborhoods where major grocery chains have chosen not to set up shop.  Ironically, eating out all the time is inevitably is more costly than buying and cooking groceries!

Equally as troubling, the phenomenon of urban food deserts has been pointed to as one reason for rising rates of obesity. Restaurant food on average is less healthy than what people cook themselves, since restaurant cooks will add anything - sugar, butter - to make it taste good so people will buy it!  Urban food deserts force people to eat out more, putting their health at increased risk.

When buying your home, if you don't have a car, one thing you might take into consideration is whether your neighborhood has an accessible grocery store. This can impact both your wallet and your health.  But where exactly are Washington, DC's food deserts?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently released a Urban Food Desert Mapping System!  Over at DCentric, they've gone ahead and mapped DC's food deserts, and here were their findings:

• Around 18,000 DC residents live in urban food deserts
• 13% of DC households face 'food insecurity' - they are unable to acquire nutritionally adequate food
• In one such desert, 39% of residents are children
• Prince George's County has more urban food deserts, but Washington, DC's deserts have higher concentrations of children
• According to DC Hunger Solutions, only 16% of the city's full-service grocery stores are located east of the Anacostia River 

Click here to view the Washington, DC food desert map.  Troubled by this phenomenon? Check out the great work of DC Hunger Solutions, a nonprofit that addresses DC's urban food desert problem, or consider speaking with your D.C. Council Member or writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper.  There has been some debate over at DCist whether Wal-Mart's attempts to come to DC, as strongly unpopular as it is among some DC residents, could potentially alleviate some of the city's food deserts.