Food Deserts, Union Action and Building Community Dialogue

Food deserts, as defined by M. Nathanial Mead in his article ‘Urban Issues: The Sprawl of Food Deserts' in Environmental Health Perspectives, are “areas within city centers where low-income people have poor access to vegetables, fruits, and other whole foods.” Without regular access to healthful foods, rates of chronic disease have grown markedly among urban poor populations. While many think of this as something likely constrained to large metropolises like New York City or Los Angeles, this phenomenon is wide spread. This presentation will focus on the efforts of the Denver Area Labor Federation to combat food deserts in the Denver metropolitan area. The challenges presented by initiating such a program in the target area will be examined, as will the unique role that labor unions and activists have in promoting and shaping the effort.