Food Systems and Public Health: The Community Perspective

Abstract

This article addresses the intersection of the food system and public health from the community perspective, based on the work of the HOPE Collaborative in Oakland, California. The HOPE Collaborative initiated intensive community outreach and engagement as part of its planning process to address inequitable access to healthy food in Oakland's most vulnerable neighborhoods. This effort involved two levels of community assessment and an inquiry into the potential of addressing both healthy food access and poverty through the construction of local food enterprise networks. Many unanswered questions remain. However, it seems clear in that in order to reduce health disparities in Oakland's most vulnerable neighborhoods, the community must address inequities in both access to healthy food and access to economic opportunity.

FIGURE 1

Obesity and poverty in alameda county school districts 2000–2003 (see endnote 2).

FIGURE 2

Distribution of people of color by census tracts. Interstate 580 in red.

FIGURE 3

Distribution of median household income in Oakland in 1999. I-580 in red.

FIGURE 4

Distribution of children under 18 living in poverty in oakland by census tract. I-580 in red.

FIGURE 5

The maps show that Oakland's highest mortality rates and lowest high school graduation rates are located in the flatlands area of the city.

FIGURE 6

Distribution of retail groceries in oakland. I-580 in red.

FIGURE 7

Schematic diagram of a local food enterprise network.

FIGURE 8

Cash flows through the local food system enterprise network. Transparency is essential for this system to work.

FIGURE 9

The London pump from which John Snow removed the handle to end the cholera epidemic.⁹