Giving our NC communities the food access they deserve

Low-fat milk, eggs, veggies, fruit and meat are on just about every shopping list. But for many North Carolinians, access to these basic grocery items is limited.

There are more than 340 food deserts – defined as communities with limited resources of fresh, healthy and affordable food – across 80 counties in North Carolina. Food deserts affect the overall health of North Carolinians, young and old, making it difficult for people with limited mobility or no transportation to get the nutritional food they need to be healthy.

The high prevalence of food insecurity was cited as a major challenge for North Carolina in United Health Foundation’s America’s Health Rankings Senior Report: A Call to Action for Individuals and Their Communities. Moreover, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington’s Department of Sociology and Criminology notes that North Carolina has the fifth-highest rate of food insecurity in the United States.

It’s no surprise that communities with limited access to fresh produce and other healthy food see higher rates of diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.

Supermarkets certainly offer nutritious food for many North Carolinians, but not every community has a supermarket. That’s where community partnerships can help. We need to work together to get healthy food to low-income areas or to people with limited mobility through food banks, farmers markets, farm stands and corner stores.

Inter-Faith Food Shuttle of North Carolina is a hunger-relief organization serving seven counties in and around the Triangle. We believe the scourge of hunger and food insecurity can be cured by creating sources of healthy food in every low-income neighborhood and giving opportunities to people to provide for themselves by teaching job skills or by growing their own food. We collect more than 6.5 million pounds of food annually from over 100 regular food donors, feeding an average of more than 42,000 people each month in partnership with almost 200 agencies and programs. We don’t do it alone and can’t create a hunger-free community by ourselves. We must work together as a community.

Food banks and hunger-relief organizations are only part of the solution. The state legislature has introduced bills to address food insecurity and has helped to drive awareness and discussion about solutions. The initiative to help mom-and-pop convenience stores sell fresh, nutritious food aids businesses and farmers, and can improve public health by reducing obesity, a serious issue in North Carolina. We have partnered with North Carolina companies like United Healthcare to provide the funds we desperately need for refrigeration and fresh, healthy food to help eliminate food deserts.

Access is critical. Many North Carolinians do not have the means to get fresh, healthy food for their families. It’s time for us to work together to take these nutritional basics to them. We invite all North Carolinians to volunteer at their local food banks, donate food or money, or call their state and local representatives to help. Every action will draw us closer to eliminating food deserts in our state.

This story was originally published July 10, 2015 at 5:44 PM with the headline "Giving our NC communities the food access they deserve."