Using Community Engagement and a GIS-Based Community Food Assessment to Spatio-Temporally Target a Healthy Mobile Food Market in Flint, Michigan

Introduction: Addressing disparities in access to healthy foods through new bricks and mortar healthy food retail can be cost prohibitive and time consuming, but mobile farmers’ markets present a low-cost, flexible alternative.  These markets, however, do not always capitalize on the principles guiding retail development and the possibilities of GIS-based data.  Our central aim is to create a temporally and spatially responsive approach to the siting of a mobile market in underserved neighborhoods of Flint, Michigan.  Method: Mobile market sites are chosen based on a GIS-based multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) of: consultation with key community partners (including churches, block clubs, corner stores, and community centers); commercial hubs designated in the city’s master plan; a community food assessment showing where healthy food items may be purchased; and high poverty neighborhoods with high densities of children and youth.  Results: The MCDA yielded a set of best fit neighborhoods, which were cross-referenced with a range of available community sites.  Sales data and use of Double-Up Food Bucks are tracked at each site throughout the summer of 2015 to validate the use of this tool for siting a mobile market.  Discussion: This work addresses the shortcomings of other food desert interventions in two ways: 1) by circumventing the frequent reliance on traditional food retail; and 2) by creating a data-driven approach to siting a mobile food market which optimizes exposure to the greatest number of underserved residents.  Subsequent programs can use this approach to improve the reach of such markets in food deserts.