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Atlanta makes progress in fight against food deserts

The city's goal is to have 85% of residents live within a half mile of fresh food by 2022.

ATLANTA — The City of Atlanta reported on Friday that 75 percent of residents now live within a half mile of fresh food, a 23 percent increase since 2015 in the effort to stamp out so-called "food deserts."

Food deserts are generally considered urban areas without a grocery store or other kind of access to fresh food and where residents are a burdensome distance from being able to access it.

According to a release by the city, the expansion of neighborhood markets "played a key role in expanding fresh food access to low-income, low-access areas since 2015."

Neighborhood markets, it said, accounted for 28% of gains - more than any other source.

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Grocery stores accounted for 18% of the increase and farmers markets accounted for 15% of the increase.

The city's goal is to have 85 percent of residents within a half-mile of fresh food by 2022.

“For Atlanta to be a place where all residents can thrive, we must ensure that residents have access to fresh food,” Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said in a statement. “This report highlights the progress we have made toward reaching our goal of ensuring that 85 percent of residents have convenient access to fresh food, as well as how we can best focus our future efforts.”

The city did not that gains in food access have been uneven, trending along income lines - it reported that areas near affluent Midtown experienced the largest gains, while the more underserved south and west parts of Atlanta saw fewer gains.

The report noted how this disproportionately impacts Black and elderly residents.

"In Atlanta, Black residents are the largest population in (low-income low-access) areas, and seniors (residents over 65) and children live in LILA areas at higher rates than non-LILA areas, which has important implications for equity and access," it stated.

A map produced with the report indicated there are 48 grocery stores in the city, 36 neighborhood markets, 27 urban farms, 21 farmers markets and 11 "supercenters."

The COVID-19 pandemic also had an effect, impacting "the local food system by creating challenges with indoor food access, but also opportunities with innovations in food access seen in fresh food sites that adapted to social distancing and moving operations outdoors."

The report included a number of recommendations for furthering the gains:

  • "Consider expanding the MARTA Markets program, which provides fresh food stands at MARTA stations throughout Atlanta." 
  • "Allow on-site sale of food on all farms and gardens citywide to connect growers with nearby residents that would benefit from increased fresh food access."
  • "Create a City of Atlanta food systems master plan for equitable development, in partnership with residents and other stakeholders groups."

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