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FOOD DESERT

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Food deserts are vapid of fresh fruit, vegetables, and other healthy foods. They are also places that are considered "low-access communities" by the USDA. To qualify as a “low-access community,” at least 500 people and/or at least 33 percent of the census tract's population must reside more than one mile from a supermarket or large grocery store (for rural census tracts, the distance is more than 10 miles).

First Lady Michelle Obama’s campaign to fight childhood obesity, “Let’s Move,” had a goal of eradicating food deserts by 2017. According to the USDA:  Part of the First Lady's Let's Move! initiative, the proposed Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) will expand the availability of nutritious food to food deserts—low-income communities without ready access to healthy and affordable food—by developing and equipping grocery stores, small retailers, corner stores, and farmers markets with fresh and healthy food. About 23.5 million people live in food deserts. Nearly half of them are also low-income.Approximately 2.3 million people (2.2% of all US households) live in low-income, rural areas that are more than 10 miles from a supermarket. There was a $400 million investment from the government towards this initiative, which would go towards providing tax breaks for supermarkets that open in food deserts.

The USDA has a food desert locating map available for public use.