Know Good Food: Fighting the Effects of Food Deserts through Community Education

According to a nation-wide study conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture Service nearly 10% of the population “are living in communities that do not provide adequate access to healthy food retailers.” This phenomenon is commonly referred to as a ‘Food Desert’. This problem is predominately articulated in the low income, urban communities of color and many rural communities. The inadequate access to healthy food and the definition of what is considered a ‘Food Desert’ only provides a glimpse of the problem. Many families living in these low income areas have access to and are able to buy healthy food but lack the basic fundamental knowledge necessary to feed themselves and their families in a healthy way. The purpose of this project to highlight the issue of inadequate knowledge, or the complete absence of knowledge, in the field of food production and nutrition in low-income communities and its effects on the individual as well as the community. Along with providing evidence of this phenomenon, I intend to propose a viable model that can be adopted by these marginalized communities to provide a center that may be used to gather and learn about what a healthy diet consists of, to discover how food makes its way from its source to the plate, and to understand and demonstrate how to prepare healthy meals