Food a Ccess Listening Session Project: North St
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
FOOD ACCESS LISTENING SESSION PROJECT: NORTH ST. LOUIS FINAL REPORT I N T R O D U C T I O N In April-January of 2017-2018, the St. Louis Food Policy Coalition (STLFPC) engaged in 17 listening sessions in North City neighborhoods and North St. Louis County municipalities. This community engagement effort was led by Missouri Coalition for the Environment's (MCE) Food and Farm VISTA, Ally Siegler. With the help of community partners, Siegler was able to receive feedback from residents of these areas about their food environment. The purpose of this report is to compile these opinions into themes to better understand barriers to good food in our region. This report is divided into multiple sections, including background information, results, next steps, etc. For inquiries on data collection or all other questions, see the final page for contact information. B A C K G R O U N D : T H E ST A T E O F F O O D I N ST. L O U I S For many years, low-income innovative ways to restore healthy food Louisans still live in areas without communities and communities of color access in low income neighborhoods. access to healthy food. In St. Louis City, have been affected by the For instance, the St. Louis Metro 57% of residents are considered low disappearance of grocery stores and Market is a refurbished bus turned into income with low access to healthy food healthy food outlets in their a mobile farmer?s market that makes within ½ mile. neighborhoods. Without access to stops in various North City and North The greatest concentration of fresh, healthy food, residents are put at County locations. Another program, low-income and low-access census higher risk of poor health outcomes. Double Up Food Bucks, allows tracts exist in parts of North City and For instance, research shows that living SNAP-eligible residents a North County, therefore the focus of closer to healthy food retail correlates dollar-for-dollar match on local STLFPC's work is in these regions, with healthier eating patterns and produce at farmers? markets and select which we refer to collectively as North decreased risks of diet-related chronic grocery stores. The St. Louis Food St. Louis. STLFPC recognizes that need diseases (Treuhaft and Karpyn, 2010). Policy Coalition (STLFPC) was created to exists in many other parts of our With the rise in diet-related diseases organize efforts around improving the region, and has decided to start in affecting communities across the food system, and as part of its mission North St. Louis with the hope to reach country, health experts and advocates convenes food access organizations more communities in the future. The are working to determine the largest and advocates from around the area to map below shows the areas of the barriers to access to healthy food and work on collaborative projects. Northern St. Louis region that are of how to combat them. Although many efforts exist to highest need. To interact with the map, In order to combat these issues, eliminate areas of low access, the data go to many groups around the nation and continues to show that many St. m oenvironm ent .org/ Nort hSTLFood. the St. Louis region are developing "Food is accessible w hen it is affordable and com m unit y m em bers can readily grow or raise it ; find it ; obt ain it ; t ransport it ; prepare it ; and eat it " (Healthy Food Policy Project, 2017). Figure 1: Low income, low access at 1/2 mile (%) for North St. Louis. Data taken from USDA's Food Access Research Atlas. STAT I ST I CS 5 7 % of r esi d en t s i n t h e Ci t y of When measuring food access, the most widely used measure St . L ou i s ar e l ow i n com e comes from the USDA and measures low-income census tracts an d h ave l ow f ood access where many residents lack access to a grocery store or t o a g r ocer y st or e w i t h i n supermarket within 1/2 or within 1 mile, known as low-income, 1 /2 m i l e.* low-access (LILA) (USDA Food Access Research Atlas, 2015). STLFPC uses LILA at 1/2 mile, as we understand that for residents without access to a vehicle, walking 1 mile to a grocery outlet over 7 0 0 ,0 0 0 may not be feasible. All st at ist ics t o t he right reflect LILA at p eop l e acr oss t h e M et r o St . L ou i s 1/ 2 m ile dat aset s. r eg i on ar e l ow i n com e an d h ave l ow f ood access, an d m or e t h an h al f of While this issue affects people across the region, low-income t h em l i ve i n t h e Ci t y or St . L ou i s communities of color continue to be some of the most Cou n t y. underserved. For example, in the For The Sake of All report by Washington University and Saint Louis University, 86% of white B l ack r esi d en t s m ak e u p St. Louis City residents agreed that it was ?easy to purchase 4 9 % of t ot al St . L ou i s Ci t y healthy food in their neighborhood? whereas only 66% of black p op u l at i on * * , yet 7 0 % of residents agreed (Purnell, 2014). In addition, according to the b l ack r esi d en t s i n St . USDA?s Food Access Research Atlas, black residents make up 30% L ou i s Ci t y l i ve i n l ow of the regional population (St. Louis City, St. Louis County, St. i n com e, l ow access Clair County) yet 68% of black residents live in census tracts that cen su s t r act s. are considered low-income, low food access within ½ mile (USDA I n ad d i t i on t o b ei n g ERS, 2015). This inequity reveals the problem as one of race in l ow -i n com e an d h avi n g l ow addition to other factors and therefore food access should be f ood access w i t h i n 1 /2 m i l e, treated as a racial equity issue. 1 5 % of St . L ou i s Ci t y an d Cou n t y r esi d en t s h ave l ow Across the region, 27% of residents are low-income and have access t o a veh i cl e. low access to healthy food. These census tracts are concentrated in parts of North St. Louis, therefore STLFPC is currently focusing its work there. * Data from USDA's 2015 Food Access Research Atlas * * Data from 2010 Census M E T H O D S: W H A T I S A L I ST E N I N G SE SSI O N ? By STLFPC definition, a listening community based on what is expressed In order to schedule these sessions, session is a forum that brings people in each session. This format allows for STLFPC members made large contact together to have an open dialogue exchange of ideas amongst participants spreadsheets of local municipal and discussion about a certain topic. and gives the facilitator a real sense of government officials, STLFPC listening sessions are the concerns of the community. The community/neighborhood groups, and centered on food access topics: qualitative data that is collected from other North St. Louis organizations and where people shop, how they get these sessions is rich and dense, then made cold calls/emails. They also there, and what they would like to see allowing STLFPC to get a holistic picture made connections through partners in change in their food environment. of community concerns. A lot of the the County, including EarthDance, The sessions are meant to be time, projects that use numerical data Operation Food Search, and United open-ended, with only a few guiding alone do not fully gather an People Market. Once contact was made, questions that keep the conversation understanding of the issue at hand and members would explain the project and on topic. Participants are allowed to more importantly, do not allow for inquire about meetings that were discuss the topic freely and in community voices to be heard. already happening in their area where whatever manner they choose. This Although STLFPC sees the merit in listening sessions could be held. In some allows the community to decide and quantitative data, the priority of this circumstances, members wrote letters to voice their priorities without being led project was to hear feedback from specific municipalities asking to be put by questions. STLFPC was able to residents in the form of stories and on their council meeting agendas. The then determine the priorities of the other verbal feedback. locations of meetings attended is shown in Figure Nam e of Meet ing Locat ion Dat e At t endance 2. The general layout of these meetings included 27th Ward of St. City Hope Bible April 22, 2017 30 people 5-20 people, depending on the session, and about Louis City Church 30 minutes to an hour of discussion.