Best Places In America For Access To Healthy Food

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Best Places In America For Access To Healthy Food

by Liam Johnson

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

As part of our series on Access to Healthy Food in the United States, we take a look at the best major neighborhoods when it comes to having access to healthy food.

Access to healthy food can bring triple major benefits to most communities -- better health, new jobs, and a revitalized economy. However, almost 30 million Americans still live in areas with limited access to supermarkets. This means that they also have limited choices to fresh and healthy food.

Research shows that having access to fresh and healthy foods is one of several factors that not only contribute to improved eating habits but also has a positive impact in health outcomes, including decreased risk for obesity and diet-related diseases. In the past two decades, most researchers have found that people who live in neighborhoods with better access to healthy food also have better nutrition and better health. Without access to healthy food, a nutritious diet is out of reach.

Don Hinkle-Brown, President and CEO of The Reinvestment Fund, a community development financial institution that invests in distressed markets and conducts research on policy issues that influence neighborhood revitalization and economic growth, believes the benefits from access go beyond health.

He stated that "decades of public and private disinvestment have left low-income neighborhoods to contend with abandoned supermarket buildings and a glut of fast food and convenience stores, cutting them off from all the economic benefits that accompany a local grocery store: the creation of steady jobs at decent wages. Healthy food retail can serve as economic anchors in a community, generating new income while attracting complementary stores and services like banks, pharmacies, and restaurants."

We had previously written about some of the worst places in the United State when it comes to providing access to healthy food, in this article we will take a look at those major neighborhoods who are taking the fight towards ending poor access of healthy food choices to its residents.

We used the following criteria when selecting the areas featured in our list;

Access of Population to Supermarkets: For the urban residents in the neighborhood they had to be within a mile of the supermarkets, while rural residents were within 10 miles of a supermarket. In most cases, an average of the combined rates for the rural and urban populations were used to determine the overall rate of the county.
Population of 100,000 and above

Best Places In America For Access to Healthy Food

50 Marion, Oregon

315,335
Total Population

10.1%

Rate of Population With Low Access

49 King, Washington

1,931,249
Total Population

9.92%

Rate of Population With Low Access

48 Warren, Kentucky

113,792
Total Population

9.89%

Rate of Population With Low Access

47 Jefferson, Kentucky

741,096
Total Population

9.6%

Rate of Population With Low Access

46 Fairfax, Virginia

1,081,726
Total Population

9.58%

Rate of Population With Low Access

45 Sebastian, Arkansas

125,744
Total Population

9.57%

Rate of Population With Low Access

44 Berks, Pennsylvania

411,442
Total Population

9.55%

Rate of Population With Low Access

43 Miami-Dade, Florida

2,496,435
Total Population

9.3%

Rate of Population With Low Access

42 Chautauqua, New York

134,905
Total Population

8.98%

Rate of Population With Low Access

41 San Mateo, California

718,451
Total Population

8.54%

Rate of Population With Low Access

40 Douglas, Nebraska

517,110
Total Population

8.51%

Rate of Population With Low Access

39 Washington, Oregon

529,710
Total Population

8.41%

Rate of Population With Low Access

38 Vanderburgh, Indiana

179,703
Total Population

8.36%

Rate of Population With Low Access

37 Lucas, Ohio

441,815
Total Population

8.34%

Rate of Population With Low Access

36 Montgomery, Maryland

971,777
Total Population

8.28%

Rate of Population With Low Access

35 Cuyahoga, Ohio

1,280,122
Total Population

8.03%

Rate of Population With Low Access

34 Stanislaus, California

514,453
Total Population

7.84%

Rate of Population With Low Access

33 Lackawanna, Pennsylvania

214,437
Total Population

7.44%

Rate of Population With Low Access

32 Westchester, New York

949,113
Total Population

7.34%

Rate of Population With Low Access

31 Wayne, Michigan

1,820,584
Total Population

7.18%

Rate of Population With Low Access

30 Androscoggin, Maine

107,702
Total Population

7.07%

Rate of Population With Low Access

29 San Joaquin, California

685,306
Total Population

6.92%

Rate of Population With Low Access

28 Nassau, New York

1,339,532
Total Population

6.86%

Rate of Population With Low Access

27 Salt Lake, Utah

1,029,655
Total Population

6.66%

Rate of Population With Low Access

26 Passaic, New Jersey

501,226
Total Population

6.57%

Rate of Population With Low Access

25 Santa Clara, California

1,781,642
Total Population

6.43%

Rate of Population With Low Access

24 Essex, New Jersey

783,969
Total Population

6.4%

Rate of Population With Low Access

23 Multnomah, Oregon

735,334
Total Population

6.22%

Rate of Population With Low Access

22 Bergen, New Jersey

905,116
Total Population

5.91%

Rate of Population With Low Access

21 Los Angeles, California

9,818,605
Total Population

5.83%

Rate of Population With Low Access

20 Schuylkill, Pennsylvania

148,289
Total Population

79,504
Urban Population

68,785
Rural Population

5.55%

Rate of Total Population With Low Access

11.11%

Rate of Total Urban Population With Low Access

Rate of Rural Population With Low Access

19 Richmond, New York

468,730
Total Population

468,730
Urban Population

-
Rural Population

5.52%

Rate of Total Population With Low Access

5.52%

Rate of Total Urban Population With Low Access

Rate of Rural Population With Low Access

18 St. Louis City, Missouri

319,294
Total Population

316,824
Urban Population

2,470
Rural Population

5.48%

Rate of Total Population With Low Access

10.96%

Rate of Total Urban Population With Low Access

Rate of Rural Population With Low Access

17 Jefferson, Louisiana

432,552
Total Population

424,619
Urban Population

7,933
Rural Population

5.44%

Rate of Total Population With Low Access

10.87%

Rate of Total Urban Population With Low Access

Rate of Rural Population With Low Access

16 Broward, Florida

1,748,066
Total Population

1,739,549
Urban Population

8,517
Rural Population

5.43%

Rate of Total Population With Low Access

10.85%

Rate of Total Urban Population With Low Access

Rate of Rural Population With Low Access

15 Alameda, California

1,510,271
Total Population

1,484,277
Urban Population

25,994
Rural Population

5.37%

Rate of Total Population With Low Access

10.48%

Rate of Total Urban Population With Low Access

.26%

Rate of Rural Population With Low Access

14 Orange, California

3,010,232
Total Population

2,999,647
Urban Population

10,585
Rural Population

4.59%

Rate of Total Population With Low Access

9.18%

Rate of Total Urban Population With Low Access

Rate of Rural Population With Low Access

13 Cook, Illinois

5,194,675
Total Population

5,184,332
Urban Population

10,343
Rural Population

3.37%

Rate of Total Population With Low Access

6.74%

Rate of Total Urban Population With Low Access

Rate of Rural Population With Low Access

12 District of Columbia, District of Columbia

601,723
Total Population

601,723
Urban Population

-
Rural Population

2.94%

Rate of Total Population With Low Access

2.94%

Rate of Total Urban Population With Low Access

Rate of Rural Population With Low Access

11 Baltimore City, Maryland

620,961
Total Population

620,961
Urban Population

-
Rural Population

2.7%

Rate of Rural Population With Low Access

Population

Urbanization

Housing Units

1 Alexandria, Virginia

139,966
Total Population

139,966
Urban Population

-
Rural Population

Rate of Total Population With Low Access

Rate of Total Urban Population With Low Access

Rate of Rural Population With Low Access

Population

Urbanization

Housing Units

Source: Economic Research Service (ERS) of the United States Department of Agriculture

Source: O*NET

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