CIVIC-PG Track B Walk to Healthy Foods: Modeling Community-Based Assets to Increase Healthy Food Access in Underserved Communities

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Low-income and racially- and ethnically- diverse communities across the United States experience limited access to healthy foods, and a higher concentration of liquor, corner, and convenience stores than supermarkets, with implications for the health and well-being of residents. Walk to Healthy Foods' vision is to bridge the gap between food accessibility and community needs in underserved communities nationwide by providing communities with an approach for identifying and leveraging existing assets in their communities to address food access challenges. Walk to Healthy Foods takes an asset-based approach by identifying businesses that are already serving community residents, such as existing liquor, corner, and convenience stores, and leveraging their presence in the community to provide healthier food options. During Stage 1, through engagement and collaboration with community stakeholders, Walk to Healthy Foods will develop a site selection model for identifying existing assets in the community that can become access points for healthy foods. During Stage 2, Walk to Healthy Foods will test and calibrate the site selection model through an intervention in an underserved community in San Diego County. Specifically, the site selection model will be used to identify potential healthy food access points, and produce distribution services will be launched at these sites, resulting in increased access to fresh produce in the community.The approach proposed, which includes partnering with an organization that is providing a direct service to the community (i.e., produce distribution services to selected sites), allows a true test of the site selection model and for research to address a community-identified need through a pilot that will have a direct impact on one community while testing and calibrating a model that can be implemented in others. A site selection model that can be used to identify existing assets in underserved communities that can be leveraged to address systemic challenges, such as limited food access, has the potential to redefine what is needed in communities for residents to have access to essential resources. Walk to Healthy Foods will contribute to the fields of geography, public health, city planning, and business, among others, and to the ongoing development of innovative approaches to solving pressing social issues.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.