Hungry for more

When the residents of Fountain Heights, Pratt City, Quinton or a 200-person senior community in Tarrant can’t access a grocery store, the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama brings the grocery store to them.

The Community Food Bank serves about 11 million meals per year through food pantries, shelters and children’s programs in 12 counties, Executive Director Kathryn Strickland said. One of their newest programs is the Corner Market, a mobile grocery store that Strickland said can bring access to fresh produce for food-insecure and low-income communities.

“To have the store come to them is very convenient and much needed,” Strickland said.

Easy access to fresh food is just one of many factors that determine an individual’s longevity and quality of life. And a new Community Health Equity Report, released in December by the Jefferson County Health Action Partnership, shows that where you live has a lot to do with your health.

Dr. Monica Baskin, one of the lead researchers for the report, summed it up as the concept that “place matters” — different neighborhoods of Jefferson County vary in life expectancy, infant mortality and disability rates, partly due to their differing abilities to access healthy resources. Sometimes, that resource is as simple as a grocery store.

“There’s no one face to hunger or people struggling with access to healthy foods, and even within pockets of our communities that we may assume are well-resourced, there are pockets where people are struggling for three wholesome meals a day or in some instances grocery stores,” Strickland said.

UNEQUAL HEALTH 

The Health Action Partnership that created this Health Equity Report is composed of 80 different organizations, including the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, United Way, the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama, the Jefferson County Department of Health and the Collaborative for Health Equity. This is the second report of its kind, with the first released in 2013.

Baskin, who has had an interest in minority health disparities throughout her career, led the collection and analysis of data from a variety of sources, such as the U.S. Census and countywide health data.

The Health Equity Report covers a broad range of what it calls “social determinants of health,” which are factors like economic stability, neighborhood environment, social context, education, physical activity, diet and health care that can predict lifespan and quality. 

The report cites multiple national studies estimating that only 10 to 20 percent of health is related to medical care availability, with the rest depending on an individual’s environment.

“It really is a function of what are the resources that are around you,” Baskin said.

Using U.S. Census tracts to break down data to a community level, the Health Equity Report shows hotspots in Jefferson County with higher instances of disability, higher infant mortality, lower life expectancy and a wider spread of wealth inequality.

Many of those census tracts that have a higher-than-average poverty level are also those hotspots with worse health outcomes. In downtown Birmingham, those areas include the census tracts for neighborhoods such as North Titusville, West End, Oakwood Place, Fountain Heights, College Hills, Druid Hills, North Birmingham, Acipco-Finley, Kingston and portions of Five Points South, among others.

By contrast, more wealthy areas like the over-the-mountain cities and some neighborhoods of south downtown Birmingham, like Highland Park, Redmont Park and Glen Iris, tended to have better life expectancy, lower disability rates and more positive health indicators.

Baskin said since the report’s release in December, the Health Action Partnership has been sharing the data with community groups and local governments. The goal, she said, is to show where Jefferson County’s areas of greatest need are, so those organizations can have “this information front of mind” and prioritize their efforts for the greatest impact.

See the full Health Equity Report, including maps of data organized by census tract, at healthactionpartnership.org.

LIFE IN THE FOOD DESERT

The Health Equity Report showed that Jefferson County has a 19 percent food insecurity rate, above both the state and national averages. A map provided in the report showed a swath of neighborhoods from west to east Birmingham that are considered food deserts, from East Lake, Woodlawn and Kingston to areas like Pratt and North Birmingham, as well as Druid Hills, Bush Hills and portions of North Avondale and Forest Park.

Baskin said the report used criteria from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to define a food desert as a low-income census tract where at least 500 people or a third of the population are more than a mile away from a grocery store or supermarket (this extends to 10 miles in rural areas). The USDA website estimates 6.2 percent of the U.S. population lives in areas that meet this criteria.

While the problem of food insecurity is only a subset of the overall health factors the report considers, it’s the area where the Community Food Bank and its partner organizations strive to meet the need.

Strickland said the key to food deserts is the difficulty accessing produce and fresh food, not just packaged and processed foods that may be available at a corner gas station.

The Food Bank’s reach extends beyond stocking food pantries to summer and weekend meals for children, doorstep grocery deliveries for seniors, programs to teach UAB doctors to screen for food insecurity and a benefit enrollment program to help eligible residents sign up for Medicare, farmers market vouchers or SNAP benefits.

The Corner Market mobile grocery is part of the Food Bank’s Mobile Fresh Initiative, which started about a year ago and is specifically “designed to address the needs of residents who live in what they may consider to be a food desert,” Strickland said.

There is a mobile food pantry to give away food, and there is the Corner Market, which is a 24-foot trailer designed to look like a miniature grocery store. The market visits locations like Tarrant and Fountain Heights once or twice a month, allowing residents to shop at wholesale prices and use SNAP benefits.

“There’s quite a substantial number of neighborhoods in Birmingham that may consider themselves to be food deserts,” Strickland said, and the Food Bank seeks to be more “granular” in its approach.

In Tarrant, for instance, the 200-person senior community was chosen because many of its residents are unable to drive and rely on a single 12-person van for weekly outings. 

Strickland said the Community Food Bank will be holding meetings throughout the area to decide on places to expand the Mobile Fresh Initiative in 2019.

Learn more about the work of the Community Food Bank, including places to get a meal, at feedingal.org.