Homeward Bound Page 1 INTRODUCTION Page 2 Homeward Bound n 1993, a UCLA research team published with individual needs in securing an ad- a comprehensive study of the food sys equate diet, while the lack of food security Item, Seeds of Change: Strategies for referred to community and ownership is- Food Security for the Inner City. The study sues: access, availability, resources, price, included a detailed case study evaluating quality, environmental considerations, in- the ability of the food system to meet the come levels, and other community-related needs of the residents of one South Central factors. Food security strategies might in- Los Angeles neighborhood. As part of that clude direct grower-to-consumer programs evaluation, the study documented a wide like farmers’ markets, urban agriculture range of food insecurity indicators: opportunities such as community gardens, or community food production facilities • 27% of area residents reported they went such as bakeries or tortillerias. Programs hungry an average of five days every designed to address supermarket location month; and transportation access needs also repre- sented possible food security initiatives. • The absence of nearby supermarkets was These could include joint venture operations compounded by lower than average ve- to attract supermarkets in low income areas hicle ownership. Further, bus lines did as well as to create community benefits such not correspond to market location. As a as new paratransit services for residents result, the lack of transportation for food without cars, or other innovative transpor- buying purposes was defined by resi- tation programs for increased food access. dents as a major community problem; Thus the concept of food security, particu- larly in the context of food access, empha- • Food prices for residents of the case sizes the importance of location or place in study area — who spent 36% of their regional, municipal, and neighborhood- annual income on food — averaged $275 level (e.g., community) settings. more per year than residents of a selected suburban area who spent 12% of their Among the range of food insecurity indica- income on food; tors, the issues of access stand out as a pri- mary problem area in which several other • The lack of fresh quality produce illus- factors such as price, nutritional quality, or trated the issue of nutritional deficien- storage capability are significantly related. cies and related health and learning Yet despite the prominence of access needs problems that are endemic in low income in urban food systems, research by food sys- areas.1 tem analysts regarding transportation issues has been relatively sparse. Transportation In response to such pronounced food secu- planners, meanwhile, have undertaken spe- rity needs, the Seeds of Change study also cific research involving equity consider- analyzed a number of recent, largely explor- ations in transportation planning, including atory strategies designed to empower com- the limits of transportation systems address- munities and shift the focus of intervention ing the needs of low income communities from “hunger” to “food security”, a concept and the problems associated with low ve- that had up to then been used primarily in hicle ownership in car-dependent commu- the international development literature. nities like Los Angeles.2 Only a few studies, The study pointed out that the concept of however, have explored the connection be- hunger had been predominantly associated tween access and availability of fresh, high Homeward Bound Page 3 quality, competitively priced food in such proach to customer transportation needs communities, even as surveys have indi- and the dearth of transportation planning cated that the access/availability link re- initiatives that incorporate food access, there mains a powerful concern in low income have nevertheless been recent attempts by communities.3 community organizations, food market managers, and government agencies to ad- The most common focus, both of research dress this issue. Out of these efforts, a vari- and advocacy work on those subjects, has ety of transportation/food access programs been the relationship between vehicle own- are currently in operation, at a development ership and supermarket location.4 As de- stage, or represent concepts still needing to scribed in this Report, the trend towards be implemented. And while these programs supermarket abandonment of low income do suggest that opportunities for a food ac- neighborhoods that significantly escalated cess approach do exist, they remain sepa- during the 1960s and 1970s exacerbated an rate from any more integrated transporta- already existing problem tion strategies on the part of transportation access. of either retailers, trans- Even with the renewed portation planning agen- interest of food chains in Even with the renewed cies, or various service relocating to certain low interest of food chains in providers. For food ac- income urban communi- relocating to certain low cess to be more success- ties, supermarkets have income urban communi- fully addressed as a com- failed to directly address ties, supermarkets have munity food security ap- the transportation ques- proach it needs to become tion. In analyzing retail failed to directly address part of a transportation industry approaches, for the transportation ques- planning as well as food example, project team re- tion. system planning process. searchers have noted the nearly complete absence Homeward Bound is di- of any discrete transportation policy of the vided into five Sections. Section I, Food major supermarket chains. This situation Access and The Transit Dependent, identi- prevails despite the clear (and often recog- fies a range of issues concerning the lack of nized) benefits of such a policy, such as an food access in low income communities. It increased customer base or the possible re- elaborates the specific contributions to the duction in the replacement cost of shopping problems of food insecurity associated with carts (which represent a considerable, access needs, such as supermarket location though hidden, cost associated with transit or nutritional deficiencies. It includes a lit- dependency and the lack of food access). erature review on access issues from both a Where food retail managers have sought to food systems and transportation planning develop transportation programs for their perspective. Section II, Current Policies, stores, they have been influenced primarily reviews and analyzes the nature of the pro- by “goodwill” and “community service” grams and policies that have been estab- considerations, rather than an evaluation of lished regarding food access by both public transportation/access factors in the context and private sector groups. These include of store performance. 5 local and federal food and transportation programs, and the approach of the food re- Despite the absence of a supermarket ap- tail industry. Section III, Exploratory Pro- Page 4 Homeward Bound grams — Case Studies, describes various exploratory and innovative programs that have emerged in recent years, representing opportunities available for improving food access in low income communities. These programs are primarily, though not exclu- sively associated with paratransit services. While many of these programs have been successful in terms of their (often loosely defined) objectives (as well as certain unan- ticipated benefits), they remain discrete, dis- tinctive examples, not linked to any broader policy or planning approaches. Section IV, New Models for Greater Food Access, in seeking to build on the potential applicability of the kinds of programs de- scribed in Section III, identifies three types of models for developing new policy and programmatic approaches in the food access area. These include a private, joint venture (public/private partnership), and non-profit approach. Finally, a concluding section de- tails the Report’s policy and programmatic recommendations for expanding food ac- cess. Food access, we have concluded, is an issue that has yet to fully locate its own policy and programmatic niche. Yet, in an era of transit dependencies and growing food insecurity indicators, food access has become a grow- ing topic for both anti-hunger activists, the food industry, and policymakers. By inte- grating food security and transportation planning and policy development, policymakers, transit officials, the food in- dustry (including most crucially the food retail sector), and community groups have the capacity to establish more expansive food access strategies beyond the limited, ad hoc measures that exist today. The opportu- nities, our Report makes clear, are available, even if programs and policies still need to be nourished and systematized. Homeward Bound Page 5 ENDNOTES: INTRODUCTION 1. Seeds of Change: Strategies for Food Se- curity for the Inner City, Linda Ashman et al., Department of Urban Planning, Univer- sity of California, Los Angeles, June 1993 2. See for example “Social Impacts of Urban Transportation Decisions: Equity Issues”, David Hodge, in The Geography of Urban Transportation, Edited by Susan Hanson, New York: The Guilford Press, 1995; The Car and the City: The Automobile, the Built En- vironment, and Daily Urban Life, edited by Martin Wachs and Margaret Crawford, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992 3. See for example Community Retail Needs Assessment, A Market Research Report Pre- pared for RLA, ConsumerQuest, Los Ange- les, May 3, 1995;