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Food Access and Sustainability

2.5 Takeaways and Resources

Discussion Questions

  • How might systemic discrimination, based on the demographics and experiences of residents within a neighbourhood, influence their food environment?
  • Do you notice any differences in perceived access to food between low- or high-income neighbourhoods in your community?
  • What kinds of impacts related to food access might residents of diverse racial or ethnic backgrounds experience in their communities?

Exercise

Choose a neighbourhood in your city. Either walk around the area or explore it through a maps app and note all of the food stores/restaurants. Determine if they sell healthy or unhealthy food. Check out the demographics of the neighbourhood online. According to your research, decide if this area fits within one of the food environments you learned about in this chapter.

Additional Resources

FoodShare website

Food by Ward Website

Agincourt Food Asset Map

Yang, Meng, Haoluan Wang, and Feng Qiu. “Neighbourhood Food Environments Revisited: When Food Deserts Meet Food Swamps.” The Canadian Geographer 64, no. 1 (2020): 135–54. https://doi.org/10.1111/cag.12570.

CBC article, “Chinatown BIA slams study calling area ‘food desert’.”

Canadian Public Health Association “Mobile good food market brings healthy choices to neighbourhoods in ‘food deserts’.”

References

“Advancing Food Access.” FoodShare. Accessed June 9, 2021.

“Food by Ward.” Toronto Food Policy Council. Accessed June 9, 2021.

“Food Deserts.” Canadian Environmental Health Atlas. Accessed June 9, 2021.

Chen, T. and E. Gregg. 2017. “Food Deserts and Food Swamps: A Primer.” National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health.

Glanz, K., J.F. Sallis, B.E. Saelens, and L.D. Frank. 2007. “Nutrition Environment Measures Survey in Stores (NEMS-S).” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 32 (4): 282–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2006.12.019.

Stowers, K.C., Q. Jiang, A.T. Atoloye, S. Lucan, and K. Gans. 2020. “Racial Differences in Perceived Food Swamp and Food Desert Exposure and Disparities in Self-Reported Dietary Habits.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17 (19): 1gx+.

“Toronto Food Strategy: 2016 update.” Toronto Public Health.

“Vancouver Food Asset Map.” Vancouver Neighbourhood Food Networks. Accessed June 9, 2021.

Yang, M., H. Wang, and F. Qiu. 2020. “Neighbourhood Food Environments Revisited: When Food Deserts Meet Food Swamps.” The Canadian Geographer 64 (1): 135–54. https://doi.org/10.1111/cag.12570.

  1. Glanz et al. 2007, 282. ↵
  2. Stowers et al. 2020. ↵
  3. Yang et al, 2020. ↵
  4. Chen & Greg, 2017. ↵
  5. Ibid. ↵
  6. Yang et al. 2020. ↵
  7. Canadian Environmental Health Atlas, n.d. ↵
  8. Yang et al. 2020. ↵
  9. Vancouver Neighbourhood Food Networks. ↵
  10. TFPC, n.d. ↵
  11. Ibid. ↵
  12. Ibid. ↵
  13. Ibid. ↵
  14. TPH, 2016. ↵
  15. Ibid. ↵
  16. Ibid. ↵
  17. Ibid. ↵
  18. Ibid., 16. ↵
  19. TPH 2016. ↵
  20. Ibid. ↵
  21. Ibid. ↵
  22. FoodShare n.d. ↵
  23. Ibid. ↵
  24. Stowers et al, 2020. ↵
  25. Ibid. ↵

License

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Introduction to Food Insecurity Copyright © 2019 by Olya Glantsman; Jack F. O'Brien; and Kaitlyn N. Ramian (Editors) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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