Erik Neri

10/26/2015
Proposal Final draft
UWRT 1102-009

FOOD DESERTS, MAKING BEING POOR EVEN HARDER

Summary
Food deserts are a major problem affecting lower income communities in the United
States. The access to healthy and nutritious food is not only a necessity, but it's a right as a
human being living in a developed country. It saddens me to hear that there are people who only
have access to a local convenient store where there is a major lack of major necessary nutrients
found in fresh fruit and vegetables. People that have any sort of health disease are dug into an
even deeper hole when they live in a food desert, because they can't access the proper nutrients
they need to prevent further complications with their health issues.

Preconceptions
-

Theres no way there are food deserts in my area.

Why does it affect me?
I thought there were grocery stores everywhere?
How many people does it really affect?
Cant people just walk to somewhere and buy food?
Its peoples responsibilities to buy their own food and groceries

Erik Neri
10/26/2015
Proposal Final draft
UWRT 1102-009

Dont we need to emphasize our resources on getting people to actually like and

get accustomed to healthy food?

- Are food deserts actually connected to higher obesity rates, and other health
related diseases?

Audience Analysis
This study would be most relevant to anybody trying to find out why food deserts are
problems. However I believe that a younger audience in general would be interested in knowing
about food deserts and how we can limit their numbers. I think that the main purpose of this
study is to get younger people(millennials) to acknowledge the problem. There are probably a lot
of people that have yet to hear about the problems of food deserts across the united states. The
main goal however would be to engage younger generations of adults to acknowledging
problems within their own communities, like food deserts. I also want to emphasize that food
deserts are just the root of the problem, people that are affected by food deserts are put in worse
situations because they are prone to even more possible problems.

Resources/Research
In the first source I am going to mention is from the internet, and it is a study of whether
or not food deserts are a myth. There were 49 different studies conducted in 5 different countries,
and there was a general mix of data. The conclusion was that the study found to have enough
evidence to prove food deserts exist in America, while that was not the case for other developed
nations.
The second source I read and analyzed was a study that investigated ties between
peoples diets and their distance from supermarkets, deprivation to fresh fruits and vegetables, in
low income communities. A postal survey of 1000 addresses gathered information on family

Erik Neri
10/26/2015
Proposal Final draft
UWRT 1102-009

demographics, supermarket, shop use, car ownership, mobility and previous day's fruit and
vegetable intake. (direct quotation from source 2; Pearson, Tim). However the conclusion was
that none of these factors contributed to these peoples fruit or vegetable intake.
The third sources objective was to collect census data from low income women, and to
see whether what stores they lived near affected their weight. The study selected 186 low income
women from 6 different counties in North Carolina. The study concluded that women with
supermarkets near them weigh more than the women without one, and found out that women
with access to both consume fewer servings of fresh fruits and vegetables.
The last source I analyzed focused on a study that wanted to prove the claim that people
that live in urban areas tend to be less obese. The data used old 2000 census data, however I
think this is still relevant data. The conclusion is that there are longer commute times and
basically there is a drop in intense physical activity, therefore resulting in higher obesity rates.

Project needs
The skills I will need to develop are my inquiry skills. I believe that if I can ask the right
questions to myself while reading published documented I can slowly but surely find the answers
to my questions. Also my researching and citing skills have to a come full circle with everything
I am discussing in this study. Where I get my resources is very important and it needs to show
that I am not biased towards any side of the argument.

Results
The biggest difference I want to make, is for people understand the hard realities that
people go through when they lack proper transportation to go to a full fledged supermarket. I

Erik Neri
10/26/2015
Proposal Final draft
UWRT 1102-009

want there to be an understanding that there should be an access to fresh fruits and vegetables to
all people every day of the week. I hope the study engages people all across the local Charlotte
and North Carolina community, and makes people pay attention to food deserts. I want there to
be a change in the culture where there is a push to expect the best from our food providers. There
should be a change in attitude in how we eat, and should really make a true emphasis on eating
balanced meals.

Citations (mla format)

1) Beaulac, Julie, Elizabeth Kristjansson, and Steven Cummins. "Result Filters."
National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 15
June 2009. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.
2) Pearson, Tim. "Do food Deserts Influence Fruit and Vegetable Consumption?a
Cross-sectional Study." Do 'food Deserts' Influence Fruit and Vegetable Consumption?-a
Cross-sectional Study. N.p., 2005. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.

Erik Neri
10/26/2015
Proposal Final draft
UWRT 1102-009

3) Gustafon, Alison A., Joseph Sharkey, Carmen D. Samuel-Hodge, Jesse JonesSmith, Mary Cordon Folds, Jianwen Cai, and Alice S. Ammerman. "Perceived and
Objective Measures of the Food Store Environment and the Association with Weight and
Diet among Low-income Women in North Carolina." Public Health Nutrition. N.p., 16
Feb. 2011. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.
4) Jilcott, Stephanie B., Haiyong Liu, Justin B. Moore, Jeffrey W. Bethel, James
Wilson, and Alice S. Ammerman. "Commute Times, Food Retail Gaps, and Body Mass
Index in North Carolina Counties." Preventing Chronic Disease. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, 15 Aug. 2010. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.