Food environments of public schools in New York City

Introduction: Disparities in the local food environment, for instance in exposure to fast food, may be a factor in the obesity rates of low-income, African American, and Hispanic children. The location of unhealthy food outlets near schools is a particular concern because it can counteract policy initiatives to provide more nutritious food and beverages in school cafeterias and vending machines. Evidence is limited, however, about the food environment in school neighborhoods. This quantitative analysis uses GIS methods to examine school- and neighborhood-level predictors of the food environment around public schools in New York City.

Methods: We created 400-meter network buffers around a total of 1,579 schools, and constructed measures of race/ethnic and income composition, built environment, and counts of food outlets for each school location. The analysis also included school-specific data on enrollment, student demographics, and grade level. Data were analyzed using Binomial and Poisson regression.

Results: Low-income and ethnic minority students attend school in neighborhoods with more fast food restaurants, pizzerias, bodegas (small grocery stores), and convenience stores. Built environment features such as commercial zoning account for some but not all of these differences. In addition, while fast food has received much attention, other sources of inexpensive and energy dense food are far more common near public schools and deserve more scrutiny.

Conclusion: More information is needed to understand how students in dense city environments interact with food options in their local school neighborhood to target policy solutions appropriately.