Mapping Food Access in Immokalee, FL Lusi Wang, Christina Zhang, - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Mapping Food Access in Immokalee, FL

Lusi Wang, Christina Zhang, Lena Knezevic, Mackenzie Mann, & Keely Meyers In partnership with Dr. Thomas Felke

Existing food insecurity definition by USDA

Food Desert

>½mile

500 people or/and 33% of census tract population

>10mile

Issues not addressed in this definition

Quality (Food Swamps) Transportation Weather

Context: Immokalee, FL

• Agricultural community
• Census data:
• 24,154 residents (underestimate)
• 75.6% Latino (Mexican, Cuban, Guatemalan,

Haitian)

• Over half of residents are foreign born
• 44.8% of individuals live below the Federal

Poverty Line

• 46% of surveyed households use SNAP/EBT

Immokalee, FL

• Social issues
• Education
• Housing ($325/week for trailer section)
• Healthcare access
• Immigration enforcement
• Hurricane Irma
• Food insecurity
• High prices
• Lack of transportation
• Availability and quality of foods
• Weather

Project Goal

Questions:

• Where do people in Immokalee buy their food other than supermarkets?
• What is sold at these locations? Can SNAP/WIC be used?
• What do necessary items cost at these locations?

Expected Product:

• Create a spatial visualization of food access points in Immokalee, FL, including

farmer’s markets, mini-marts, bodegas, restaurants, and other food vendors, as well as data about these access points.

Research Methodology

Survey food access points in Immokalee

• Access point location
• Acceptance of SNAP/WIC EBT cards
• Types of foods available
• Prices of food items based on size

Based on a statewide tobacco vendor survey conducted by the Department of Health in summer 2016 Create a map using ArcGIS to visualize data of how and where residents purchase their food

Food Access in Immokalee

Findings

• Variable prices
• Vast amount of unhealthy food → chronic health conditions
• Limited access to healthy fresh vegetables and fruits
• Lots of jarred fruit and fruit juices (i.e. Jumex)
• Food grown locally is shipped to neighboring

communities

• Cannot use EBT at farmer’s market
• Milk prices and availability
• Limited quantities or unavailable
• $5-6/gallon
• Rotten milk sold at discount
• Our collected data can be found here

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bKu8N8yU-uAtAbYb61z3eo72GS_7k8Az] Figure: 2% milk price for different vendor types

SNAP/EBT Access

• SNAP: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
• EBT: Electronic Benefit Transfer card

Reflections

• Methodology
• Importance of definitions for food purchasing sites
• Narrowing the scope of survey questions to better reflect food access
• Price differences across brands
• Outsiders entering a new community
• Unlabeled food and higher prices?
• Fear and suspicion
• Knowledge of cultural food choices
• Language barriers → Spanish/Creole speakers needed
• Work with team with diverse backgrounds reflective of the community

Next Steps

Mapping data

• Population density
• Buffer zones (“as the crow flies”)

Focus groups with store owners and residents of Immokalee about food purchasing/selling decisions Use models in other communities of southwest FL (Golden Gate, etc.) Hopefully expand EBT access to farmer’s markets and other locations with healthy food options