Geographic access to emergency food among racial/ethnic minorities and foreign-born residents in the twin cities

Introduction: Food shelves (a.k.a. food pantries) are an important emergency food source for food insecure households. Place-based disparities in access to many food sources have been well documented, but geographic access to food shelves among food insecure families is unknown. Methods: Census tract data for the Twin Cities area was derived from the 2010 U.S. Census and American Community Survey. Regression models estimated the average street-network distance to the closest food shelf according to racial/ethnic composition (quartiles) and key foreign-born group composition (highest quartile) for each census tract, holding constant poverty level, population density, and food shelf size. Results: The raw distance to the closest food shelf averaged 2.6 miles. Using the log-transformed distance in multivariable models, census tracts with the highest proportion of African American, Asian, Hispanic and American Indian/Alaska Native residents had shorter distances to the nearest food shelf (0.21-1.08 miles, p <0.05 after Bonferroni correction); those with the highest proportion of white residents had longer distances (0.91 miles, p< 0.05). Census tracts with more residents born in East Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America also had shorter distances to the nearest food shelf (0.17-0.36 miles, p< 0.001). Discussion: Areas with more racial/ethnic minorities and key foreign-born groups appear to have shorter distances to food shelves. Given these findings, future research should 1) evaluate the ability of food shelves to offer culturally relevant foods to clientele, and 2) examine access to food shelves in rural areas, which may have more white residents, but comparable levels of food insecurity.