Putting food on the table
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Yesterday’s Oregonian front-page story shines a light on the difficulties that some low-income families face in accomplishing the seemingly simple task of grocery shopping. The story helps readers understand the various barriers – transportation, price, and more - that low-income people face accessing fresh, nutritious food. It then highlights the connections between limited food access and chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. These are connections that most of us don’t think about when we do our weekly trips to the grocery store. They’re also not the connections that urban planners think about when they are considering future community design.
The story mentions CLF’s Regional Equity Atlas analysis on food access, and highlights some of what CLF member, Community Health Partnership, is doing to improve food access in Portland’s Lents neighborhood. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. In the past year, several great studies that explore different dimensions of the region’s foodshed have been published. To get started building knowledge of our region’s foodshed, check out these great reports:
Planting Prosperity and Harvesting Health: Trade-offs and Sustainability in the Oregon-Washington Regional Food System
Exploring the Clark County Food System Report
CLF Joins Consortium to Advance Regional Equity