Grocery shopping in your neighborhood may be dangerous to your health

Since the urban reform movement of the 1960s, large retail grocery stores have left many low-income, inner-city neighborhoods to relocate to more affluent suburbs. The flight of larger grocery stores has resulted in many inner cities becoming “food deserts” – a term used to describe a community which lacks access to markets that sell a broad array of healthy and affordable food. Without access to healthy and affordable food choices, residents in many neighborhoods have seen a rise in poor health outcomes. This project uses Section 8 housing and public health data to map two low-income neighborhoods in Buffalo, NY which have seen a rise in poor health outcomes. The data reveal that the incidence of obesity, tobacco use, infant mortality, and cardiovascular disease has risen to nearly 76% for some of these health conditions. Recommendations for community-level interventions are made to eradicate the problem of inadequate access to healthy foods in low-income neighborhoods.