There are a variety of factors that can influence a communities ability to be healthy. Distance from a supermarket, lack of access to a vehicle and low incomes can severely restrict a person’s access to healthy food. Research shows that having access to full service supermarkets and healthy foods are associated with lower disease rates. Identifying where the food deserts are located and the populations that are most effected are the keys to rebuilding communities and assuring that families and children have fair access to healthy foods. According to Feeding America, there are over 44 million people, including 13 million children experiencing food insecurity annually in the United States. In Georgia, there are 1,426,880 people that are food insecure and 461,720 children facing food insecurity. Food insecurity doesn't only affect those in poverty but also people with a steady income and affordable housing. Temporary setbacks such as job loss, medical emergencies, natural disasters, and family crisis can lead to household food insecurity. 

Food insecurity, or the lack of access to enough nutritious food, can have serious consequences on people's health and well-being. Chronic conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity are common in neighborhoods with high food insecurity rates.  Food insecure neighborhoods commonly have little access to full-service supermarkets and organic foods. 

Most impoverished communities are littered with small convenience stores selling unhealthy snacks and boxed foods. These food options contain ingredients that are known to cause cancer such as brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propyl paraben, titanium dioxide, and food dye. While some countries have outlawed these dangerous chemicals, our communities are full of toxic foods with killer ingredients.

ATLANTA — The Atlanta License Review Board has postponed a decision on a request by Kroger to sell alcohol at its Metropolitan Parkway location.  This delay follows opposition from community members who frequent the Southwest Atlanta store, insisting that Kroger address cleanliness concerns before proceeding.  Residents expressed dissatisfaction with the current state of the store, describing it as a mess. However, Kroger representatives countered, emphasizing that the store meets all requirements and has received approval from the Department of Agriculture.

The Board stated that the store must implement changes before it can revisit Kroger's request for an alcohol sales license. 

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The USDA's Economic Research Service has provided an interactive map—the Food Access Research Atlas—demonstrating the areas of the U.S. that are classified as food deserts. It shows the Brown's Mill tract as meeting both the low-income and low-access criteria of their food desert definition.

There are a few additional factors provided by the USDA ERS that are worth consideration in addition to the above atlas data when discussing an area's status as a food desert.

Vehicle Availability and Supermarket Access

This tract has a relatively high number of households (21.7%) without vehicles more than one-half mile from a supermarket.

Group Quarters Population

Group quarters are living situations such as college dormitories, military quarters, correctional facilities, homeless shelters, residential treatment centers, and assisted living or skilled nursing facilities. In these cases, residents that appear to be far away from a grocery store based on the data may not actually struggle with access to healthy food since it is often provided to them by the entity or institution housing them. However, the Brown's Mill tract does not contain a relatively high share of people living in group quarters—only 0.2%—indicating that these residents do in fact have limited access to nutritious food.