If you travel more than a mile to a supermarket, supercenter or large grocery store with affordable and healthy food in an urban area and more than 20 miles in a rural area, you live in what the USDA considers the definition of a “food desert.”
This lack of access affects approximately 17 million Americans, according to the USDA Food Access Research Atlas. The data also show that the number of people who live half a mile or more from food options in urban areas, or 10 miles in rural areas, increases that number to more than 53 million Americans, including those in New Jersey.
In January 2021, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed into law the Desert Relief Act, part of the Economic Recovery Act, which will provide approximately $240 million in funding to combat this problem in the state.
The Desert Food Relief Act provides tax breaks to supermarkets and grocery stores that open in underserved areas, as well as grants, loans and other assistance for food retailers of all sizes to operate in these areas.
The Community Food Bank of New Jersey estimates that 800,000 residents in the state face food insecurity, and nearly 200,000 of them are children.
Robert Brown, 53, of Newark, New Jersey, says he travels two miles from his home to ShopRite without a car, telling ABC News that prices and options are factors.
“I live 20 blocks away, but we have a store down there, where I live, but [the prices are] so high that I come here,” Brown said. “No need to spend my money there, and I get little to nothing when I can get everything I need.”
Katrina Moseley, 45, says she has to take it a step further because the two-mile trip to ShopRite is her second grocery trip of the day.
“I started this morning at 8 o’clock, went to Walmart, got home around 11:30, rested a little bit, caught the bus… I got there at 12, 12 or something. Bought it. I take my time in the store to check things out, and now I’m waiting for a ride home,” she said.
Katrina Moseley says she depends on two different bus lines, a taxi and relatives to pick her up to feed her family of four.
Moseley depends on two different bus routes, taxis and relatives to pick her up, as she takes the day off work to feed her family of four, including a daughter with a baby on the way.
“I go to Walmart to get most of the meat because it lasts, you can make like… One of their meat packages you can make 2-3 meals out of it, it all depends on how you do it,” she said.
Returning is also an issue for Brown, knowing some options aren’t practical. “If I tried to get on the bus with this, it would be too much, it would be too much,” she said.
Tara Colton, executive vice president of economic security for the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, says addressing food deserts, a product of structural racism, neighborhood redlining (denying services to certain communities) and disinvestment, is not as simple as building a supermarket.
“You can live next to the most amazing market or farmer’s market, but if you can’t afford to buy the food that’s there, or they don’t accept federal food programs like snap, then it’s not available to you,” Colton said.
Economic Development Authority Sustain & The Serve NJ initiative began as a $2 million pilot program to help with food security, along with support for the state’s restaurant industry in 2020. The program has evolved into a $45 million initiative, paying restaurants to deliver ready meals directly to those in need.
Colton told ABC News, “I often say it’s not about getting people to food, it’s about getting food to people. And there’s a lot of ways to do that. They can go into a big building and buy it and put it in a car truck, but you can bring it to them more centrally.”
She highlights the impact of the program. “That one dollar you spend keeps the restaurant open, the workers employed and gives people who often don’t have access to this type of food a healthy fresh, nutritious home-cooked meal,” she said.
For those like Moseley who prefer to cook their own meals, despite the mile-long odyssey to multiple supermarkets, the focus is on doing what is necessary for her family.
“The ones I have to take care of, so this is what I’m doing for them, they’re shopping. To do that, get out of the way,” she said.
