Food security in the Knoxville area may not be so secure.
While the demand for local and organic food increases nationwide, low-income households in Knoxville remain malnourished.
Knoxville was the first city in the country to start working on food policy issues in 1982, but lags behind the much of the country in food security.
Despite movements to increase food availability, the Knoxville area ranked 17th among the top 100 metropolitan areas for food hardship in the Food Research and Action Center’s “Food Hardship in America 2011 Report,” with 21 percent of households unable to afford enough food.
Most of that 21 percent resides in one of Knoxville’s 20 neighborhoods classified as food deserts, areas characterized by a lack of grocery stores and by high rates of diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.
Efforts to create incentives to bring grocery stores to underserved areas have been proposed, but many low-income areas continue to lack a grocery store within a mile of the home, a problem compounded and often accompanied by reliance on public transportation.
Not owning a car makes groceries more difficult to obtain, and low-income areas in Knoxville have two to four times fewer grocery stores than higher-income areas.
In addition to this challenge, a study conducted by the UT Health Nutrition Program revealed a 15 percent higher food bill for low-income Knox County households compared with higher-income households.
On average, a low-income household is liable to pay $23 more than a higher-income household would in Knox County on the same $180 food basket.
Lacking traditional, fully-stocked grocery stores, food deserts are often dotted with small convenience stores with smaller selections, minimal amounts of fresh food and higher prices.
“Many food deserts are also ‘food swamps,’ which means there are no supermarkets or vegetable stands, but many fast food restaurants and corner-stores selling junk food,” Chad Hellwinckel, research assistant professor at the UT Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, said. “Food swamps are a problem, because people substitute easily accessible junk food for healthy food. This leads to the ironic situation where you have obesity problems in food deserts.”
According to the Teneessee Statewide Nutrition and Physical Activity Plan, government institutions like schools, parks and prisons can greatly influence the creation of a healthy local food system since they are able to offer reliable demand through their purchasing power.
Director of Nutrition for Knox County Schools Jon Dickl said Knox County Schools has responded to the problem of food deserts, and parents and students have shown approval of the quality of school lunches in recent years.
“Food deserts create an opportunity for the Knox County Schools to remove a barrier to learning by meeting the dietary needs of our students and helping educate them on a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables,” Dickl said. “We know that some students may not have the opportunity to learn about or enjoy many fresh foods, either as a result of living within a food desert or due to economic challenges.”
Still, Knoxville and the surrounding area aren’t without efforts to improve food access.
In 2009, the region had 11 community-supported agriculture groups and 10 farmers markets.
Organizations such as Beardsley Farms, Second Harvest Food Bank, Socially Equal Energy Efficient Development (SEEED) and Coalition on America’s Poor Health and Poverty (CAPP) work to bring fresh food or health education to the community.
Farmers’ markets across the area also make an impact, and offer something for lower income households as well.
Seven Springs Farm farmer Donna Riddle has been a board member of the East Tennessee Farmers Association for Retail Marketing (FARM) for two years, and said that even the area’s less financially well-off can benefit from farmers markets, as many vendors accept EDT food stamps.
“A wide variety of incomes can come and buy great seasonal food since a lot of the farmers markets now accept food stamps,” Riddle said. “We pick the day of, so you can’t get any fresher than what we bring to the market. We’re able to answer questions about how (the food) was raised and what variety.”
Hellwinckel maintains that even the population not living in a food desert should be concerned about alleviating the problem.
“Without (food) accessibility, our region’s citizens eat poorly, leading to health problems, poor performance in school and mental stress,” Hellwinckel said. “These problems ultimately cost us all in tax dollars and lost productivity, so I believe fixing food access problems is in the interest of everyone, even if you yourself do not live in a food desert.”
