This article is the first part of a two part series.

COVID-19 has given us enough on our plates. But what about people who don’t have enough food on theirs to face it? 

In 2018, at least 11.1% of US households were food insecure, meaning that 14.3 million households were uncertain of, or could not obtain, enough food to meet their needs from a lack of sufficient funds or resources. The risk of food insecurity is higher among low-income populations in communities known as food deserts. Food deserts are places where community members are more than one mile from a supermarket in an urban area, or more than ten miles from a supermarket in a rural area. More colloquially, they are communities where access to affordable, healthy food options are restricted because of the absence of grocery stores within a convenient traveling distance.  Low-income neighborhoods are three times less likely to have supermarkets than wealthy neighborhoods. This does not mean there is no food available; rather, the food is simply fast food or highly processed.

This definition, however, does not acknowledge the underlying socioeconomic factors that contribute to the placement of food deserts. Food apartheid, according to Karen Washington, founder of Black Urban Growers Conference, “looks at the whole food system, along with race, geography, faith, and economics.” Food aparthieds exist in low-income, inner-city, and rural black and brown communities with low access to health care and transportation. These circumstances, in turn, disincentivize supermarkets from investing in the communities. Big grocery businesses face higher costs - perishables require special storage and higher building and operating costs, and these communities are located inconveniently far from regular delivery routes. Concerns on crime and security also push them away. Convenience stores are common in these communities, but the food is often non-perishable (as they do not require specialized storage and take up less shelf space), and sold individually packaged at a higher price than in normal grocery stores, putting what little fresh food they have out-of-budget. 

Food apartheid causes significant public health problems. People who live in food apartheids experience higher rates of obesity, chronic illness, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other diet-related conditions. These illnesses come from a lack of access to healthy food and education on how food choices impact health. Even when access to healthy food increases, this does not guarantee a diet change, especially when the relative prices of healthy foods remain high, and there is a culture of eating unhealthy foods. People won’t automatically change their food habits, as they prefer familiarity - visiting the same convenience stores and buying the same food. 

These underlying public health issues may contribute to higher rates of COVID-19 in these communities. Of the 19 hardest-hit states (with reported cases above 40,000), 13 of them have prevalent rates of food insecurity, indicating that the location of food apartheids may predict where the next hotspots will be. Individuals who are more likely to contract the virus have underlying conditions such as diabetes, asthma, liver disease, and severe heart conditions. Additionally, the socioeconomic factors of food apartheids feed into high COVID-19 rates. People who live in food apartheids tend to be in crowded living conditions, rely on public transport (and with current limitations on public transport, are forced to shop more often at convenience stores), work in essential fields, and have inconsistent access to health care, all of which contribute to higher risks of contracting the virus. Studies have already shown that the threat of COVID-19 has already increased food insecurity, leading people to buy more non perishable food items, contributing to the harms of food apartheids.

New Orleans, Louisiana, for example, has one of the highest rates of food insecurity in the country, affecting 18% of the population. It also had one of the highest COVID-19 rates in the country, with 29,700 confirmed cases. Similar examples can be found in Tallahassee, Florida, and Jackson, Mississippi. Though other factors also contribute to high COVID-19 rates that this article will not explore, the effects and circumstances of food apartheid on community members leave them especially vulnerable to contracting the disease. In other words, identifying food apartheid regions may lead to being able to slow or even stop the spread of COVID-19 before it reaches these communities.

The second part of Charlotte’s article will analyze urban farming and its potential as being the best strategy to mitigate food apartheids during COVID-19. It will also provide coverage of the privately-owned urban farm Finca Tres Robles (FTR), located in Houston, Texas, which services low-income neighborhoods east of the city center.