Louisiana may be known for its cuisine, but more than 75,000 East Baton Rouge Parish residents are cut off from fresh, affordable foods. They live in one of the parish’s seven food deserts — low-income pockets that are more than a mile away from the nearest grocery store.
However, a new 13-member commission is working to develop ways to improve the food supply to those deserts.
Broderick Bagert, lead organizer for Together Baton Rouge, said the commission was born after Together Baton Rouge, a nonprofit made up of about 40 local religious and civic organizations, heard community members talking about the need for more healthy and reasonably priced foods in their neighborhoods. The community’s initiation of the commission is significant because it means people are not waiting on the government or outsiders to solve problems, he said.
The commission brings together business, academic, research, policy and nonprofit interests, including the LSU AgCenter, that may have never otherwise sat down to discuss food deserts, Bagert said. Together Baton Rouge will lead efforts to advocate for and implement the commission’s recommendations to state and local government as well as private entities.
“Our commitment is to make sure whatever is recommended doesn’t just sit on the shelf,” Bagert said.
Bagert said 10 years from now, the landscape of East Baton Rouge Parish’s food deserts will hopefully have changed completely. Achieving this would require drawing attention to the issue across the parish and taking it seriously, just as development projects for places like Perkins Rowe have been.
“We’re saying, let’s take development of these communities as seriously as some of the communities that are doing pretty well,” Bagert said.
Kenneth Koonce, commission member and University College of Agriculture dean, pointed out that residents who live in food deserts are not completely without food because they usually have access to small convenience stores. The tradeoff, however, is affordable prices for foods that are usually processed and less nutritious, he said.
“They’re economically deprived but yet they overeat and become obese,” Koonce said. “Well, what are they eating? They’re eating low-quality food, non-healthy foods. High sweets, high sugar content, high fat content — things that you can get from a convenience store that’s packaged and is not fresh.”
Annrose Guarino, state specialist for urban health with the LSU AgCenter, said one in three children in Louisiana are overweight or obese. Children living in food deserts have a chance to eat wholesome foods in their school lunches, but they miss out on nutritious foods during the summertime because they have to eat at home, she said.
“You would be surprised how many elementary students have never seen broccoli, or don’t know what broccoli is if you held up a picture … because they’re not really served that at home,” Guarino said.
The elderly’s access to food is also of concern, Guarino said, because they tend to be less mobile. Especially in food deserts, older people must factor transportation into their food budget because they depend on others to take them to stores or to bring food to them, she said.
“A lot of them skip meals,” Guarino said. “They don’t have enough money for medicine or for food, one or the other.”
Guarino said one potential solution is encouraging farmers’ markets to accept food stamps.
“It’s an economic opportunity for farmers, ranchers, fishermen, and food entrepreneurs to have a greater supply of healthy food to meet the growing demand,” Guarino said.
Koonce said the commission is examining farmers’ markets as potential solutions. Another possible route is growing community gardens in vacant common areas within food deserts, which the College of Agriculture has been working with schools to develop over the past three years, Koonce said.
The main issue, however, is finding out how to get supermarkets to open in areas such as food deserts where they have not been successful before, Koonce said. Developing a business structure in these areas is essential for a permanent solution to the food desert problem, he said.
Associated Grocers and Walmart both have representatives serving on the commission, he said.
“We don’t want to just go in and provide fruit and vegetables and meat for a couple of months and then it goes back to the way it was,” Koonce said. “It’s not just passing the plate and giving somebody something.”
Still, Koonce said supermarkets will have to have an economic incentive to expand their operations to food deserts. In East Baton Rouge Parish, the links between food deserts, poverty and crime may be key as well.
“These food deserts are directly correlated with poverty,” Koonce said. “What else is correlated with poverty? Crime.”
Koonce said while the food deserts will not “end up being a Kenilworth subdivision when we finish with this,” help from the community will amplify the commission’s efforts to improve food access. The community will also benefit because people with healthy food are generally more successful and become productive citizens, Koonce said.
Another potential roadblock lies in the fact that food desert residents do not necessarily want to buy healthy foods or care about being able to do so, Koonce said, because they are accustomed to low-quality processed foods.
Koonce said nutrition education programs such as those conducted by the LSU AgCenter in schools could help. Additionally, attitudes toward food may shift once grocery stores become an integrated part of the community, he said.
Koonce said it is “very appropriate” that he, the College of Agriculture and the AgCenter are involved with the commission because agriculture is all about food.
“It’s not just about growing the food, it’s about processing the food, making it as healthy as possible and getting it to the consumer,” Koonce said.
“These food deserts are directly correlated with poverty. What else is correlated with poverty? Crime.”
