Planning for Local Access to Healthy Foods

Low-income, minority neighborhoods throughout the nation face disproportionate rates of obesity and chronic disease. This may be due in large part to easy access to fast-food restaurants and convenience stores and unavailability of larger food stores and other sources of healthy, affordable foods such as farmers' markets and urban agriculture. The comprehensive plan directly influences a community's urban design, land-use and zoning regulations, which influence the preservation of rural and peri-urban agriculture, the proximity of food outlets (e.g. grocery and convenience stores, fast-food restaurants, farmers' markets, urban agriculture) to schools and residential areas, and the prevalence and types of food outlets available in neighborhoods. Collectively, these factors fundamentally drive the availability of healthy and unhealthy foods in a community. Therefore, tools such as comprehensive planning and zoning regulations—both justified through local governments' police power to address the health, safety, and welfare needs of residents—can be used to protect and provide children, adolescents and adults access to healthy, affordable foods and support a sustainable food system. Based on the experiences of pioneering communities, this presentation will inform participants about the role of urban planning in developing and implementing local and regional policies and programs to improve food access and support environmentally sustainable food policy.